Research: Children in Advertising Campaigns

I've been asking myself a few questions in terms of using the child as a motif to create empathy.

Would people have different opinions to controversial ads if they were created from a child's perspective/used children within them? (images on the right were recreated by me)

Does the use of children in Government campaigns create an increased  sense of guilt? Do they actually get people to change their behaviour e.g. driving safely?

In the last few weeks of my research I have been looking into whether the use of children within advertising creates a more empathetic impact on audience viewers. But I am finding it hard to connect the dots with this and self actualisation, I just see them as two totally separate topics, and it doesn't really make sense to try and write about, and continue investigating both of them.

I'm currently trying to write out the main bulk of my essay before it is due to be submitted as a draft in three weeks time. Perhaps I'll figure things out along the way through practical research, but I think this is one of those points in the development of my research that I have to choose a more narrow path to focus on in order to come to a more realised and appropriate conclusion.