poster child

English

Alternative forms

• posterchild

Etymology

From the usage of appealing young people and children in charitable advertisements.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

poster child (plural poster children)

1. (chiefly Canada, US, idiomatic) One who is a prototypical or quintessential example of something.

   Coordinate term: pin-up

   He's a poster child for militant vegetarianism.

   • 2005, Susan Cunningham, “Poster Child”, in Unwrapping the Sandwich Generation. Life Vignettes about Seniors & Their Adult Boomer Children‎^[2], Morgan James Publishing, →ISBN, page 175:

     I think he smile could have opened the door by itself. It seemed to have a life of it’s^[sic] own with snow-white teeth below sparkling blue eyes. Its owner could be the poster child for the expression “grinning from ear to ear.”

   • 2006, Ted Dekker, Bill Bright, Blessed Child‎^[3], Thomas Nelson, →ISBN, page 77:

     “He’s not exactly a poster child for the average well-adjusted American kid. He’s only been in-country for a few days.”

   • 2008, Susan B. Neuman, “Changing the Odds though After-School Programs”, in Changing the Odds for Children at Risk: Seven Essential Principles of Educations Programs that Break the Cycle of Poverty‎^[4], ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 169:

     A visit to Adventure Island–an after-school program developed by Robert Slavin and Nancy Madden, professors at Johns Hospkins University and creators of Success for All, a comprehensive school reform program practiced in hundreds of schools across the country–could be the poster child for what some might call the academic approach.

   • 2013 December 16, Caitlin Dewey, “Two-year-old Photoshopped Jennifer Lawrence magazine cover draws criticism”, in The Washington Post‎^[5]:

     But it isn’t difficult to see why Lawrence, who has since become the poster child for healthy body image, elicits such strong reactions — particularly in GIF form, where differences between the original and Photoshopped images are clear.

Hypernyms

• Thesaurus:exemplar

Hyponyms

• poster boy, poster girl

Translations

prototypical example

• French: figure emblématique f
• German: Paradebeispiel (de) n
• Japanese: 看板娘 (ja) (kanbanmusume)(lit. poster daughter)
• Swedish: praktexempel (sv) n