poster child

noun

1

: a child who has a disease and is pictured in posters to solicit funds for combating the disease

2

: a person having a public image that is identified with something (such as a cause)

Examples of poster child in a Sentence

She was a stirring speaker and activist and soon became the poster child of the antiwar movement.

Recent Examples on the Web

Lake Pointe Village, a shopping center in Sugar Land, Texas, anchored by Whole Foods, is the poster child for the shift. — Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN Money, 8 Nov. 2026

The New York Times Company is the poster child for brand elasticity in the digital media age. — J. Kim Murphy, IndieWire, 6 Nov. 2026

Whatever the opposite of smart business is, the WNBA is the poster child. — Patricia Babcock McGraw Outkick, FOXNews.com, 27 Oct. 2026

Awash in 10-foot-high floodwaters, this area became the disaster’s unwitting poster child, its destruction still strewn about 21 years later. — Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 21 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1938, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for poster child

• domiciled
• reconciled
• undefiled
• beguiled
• brainchild
• compiled
• defiled
• exiled
• grandchild
• profiled
• refiled
• reviled