Child as a metaphor

In the current communication and entertainment world portrayal of child as a child is becoming few and far between. In fact a child has almost ceased to represent his own community .The consumption era ,post globalization, is about 10 years old and the entire consumer community is still being nurtured in the nursery of consumption. In a sense every consumer young, old, middle aged is a child except the children themselves, at least a look at the communication around us seem to say that. Media, brands marketers are all pampering this nouvo- child consumer community.
Look at the popular entertainment programmes –BigBoss; is it not an adult version of playing dolls house? All fun and pranks of childhood are packed in this show –the childish tantrums of grown up people , silly issues to start fight , pulling down some body’s shorts , stupid tasks and all the four letter words punctuated with whistles to replace childhood gaalies . Pati patni Aur woh – another version of playing family. There are beautiful children in this show but they are almost used as props –sometimes planted, sometimes taken out in this game.
There are successful movies in last couple of years which are centered round children’s life, normal or otherwise, but somehow the child is not the talking point in them .Taare Zameen par comes closest to the portrayal of a child as a child but then again a major part of it is about a batch of unreasonable children called parents and teachers. Black – seen from the child’s point of view is almost a shocking example of how clueless adults are about a child’s world. One agrees with Aamir Khan’s observation ---that the message the film gives is that to teach and tame a wild child who is also deaf and dumb is to shout at her, dunk her in water .The child started learning not by the method and guidance of a specialist teacher but all by herself out of her agony to express! What is the marketing proposition of Paa , the struggle of a child suffering from progeria or the challenge of a 68 year old playing a fast aging teen ager , and the inverted real life story where a celebrity son playing Paa to a celebrity septuagenarian father!
Ad world is full of metaphoric children- the ailing child in nappy ad is solving the social conflict of a working mother with the certificate of a lady doctor that by packing her child in a diaper she is doing the most sensible thing. The fetus in the RO ad is only a symbol of safety; ads of banks, insurance show worrying, anxious, all knowing children behaving like adults to drive home a marketing message. Amidst these portrayal there are a few refreshing commercials where children appear with all their childish glory .The baby bottom being cuddled in a diaper ad, or a child making a cell phone call to his dad to complain against mom and seriously believing that his complain has reached destination, the little boy fighting the dirt in the puddle to console her baby sister …. We all fondly remember them. Is it because they are rare and scarce in the communication world of today and our inherent desire to see them with all their innocence and impishness?