头疼亦幸福: 哄孩子职业初显商业模式

Meryl Salzinger's job re·quires her to be the “most fun person in the room”. Pulling faces, running around in circles, being generally “uncool” are all part of a day's work.

梅里尔·赛尔辛格(Meryl Salzinger)的工作就是成为“房间里最有趣的人”。扯着脸做鬼脸、转着圈跑动、总是做出“傻里傻气”的样子都是她整天的工作内容。

She is not a clown, although some days it feels that way, but a “baby wrangler”. The job involves coaxing smiles or tears from infants on photo and film shoots for advertisers and for editorial.

尽管这有时候让人感觉像小丑，但她并不是，而是一位“宝宝情绪调节师”。这份工作负责逗乐或逗哭那些供广告商或刊物编辑拍照或摄像的婴儿。

Physically and mentally draining is how the relentlessly upbeat 48-year-old describes the job. It helps that she is an ex-dancer, surfer, swimmer and yogi. “I'm on my feet all day, running, jumping, dancing and falling on my butt to make the kids laugh and [my sporting hobbies] also give me the mental strength to be patient.” She finds parallels between surfing and wrangling: “The smallest wave can give you your best ride if you know how to enjoy it. The shyest or wildest kid can give you your best shot if you have the patience.” Imitating a duck's quack or a monkey's babble can help.

这位极度开朗的48岁女士称，这份工作不论在体力还是精神上都是极大的消耗。她过去当过舞蹈演员、冲浪运动员、游泳运动员和瑜伽师，这些都对她的工作很有帮助。她说：“我整天马不停蹄，为了让孩子们开怀大笑，我不停地跑、跳、舞蹈或一屁股跌坐在地上。（我喜爱运动）这一点也让我极具耐心。”她发现冲浪和逗小孩有许多类似之处：“如果你懂得享受冲浪，最小的浪花也能令你完成最棒的冲浪动作。而如果你足够耐心，最害羞或最野的小孩也能让你拍出最好的照片。”模仿鸭子呱呱叫或者像猴子一样咿咿呀呀，就是哄小孩的好方法。

While she loves children she never wanted to have any herself. “I get the best part of kids – they look nice and they smile. Then they go home. Mums say to me: ‘How do you have the patience to get my kid to do that?' I say: ‘It's because it's not my kid'.”

尽管她很喜欢小孩，她自己却一点也不想要小孩。“我见到了孩子们最棒的一面——又乖又爱笑。之后他们就回家了。妈妈们问我：‘你怎么会有这么大的耐心，能让我的孩子做到这一点？'我回答：‘这是因为这不是我的孩子'。”

As the market for infant products grows, a heavy commercial weight rests on the chubby shoulders of the baby “talent”. According to Mintel, sales of baby durables in the US were $2.7bn in 2011. The market is expected to grow 15 per cent between 2011 and 2016, reaching $3.1bn. The research group also says the number of household goods with “baby” in the product description increased 80 per cent between 2008 and 2017 – from 180 launches to about 330 last year.

随着婴儿用品的市场不断增长，这些婴儿中的“漂亮宝贝”正用他们肥嘟嘟的肩膀背负起重重的商业担子。Mintel公司的数据显示，2011年美国婴儿耐用品的销售额为27亿美元。这一市场的规模预计从2011年到2016年将增长15%，增至31亿美元。Mintel还表示，产品描述中带“婴儿”字样的日用品种类从2008年的180种增长到去年的大约330种，增幅80%。

Parenting magazines catering to working mothers, lifestyle for fathers and “green” parenthood, are no longer just on the newsstands but online, on apps. All require photographs. Lee Southey, art director for Junior and Practical Parenting magazines, says: “There is an increased demand for more images of babies, more shoots, for more and more products and fashion ranges.”

为在职妈妈服务、为爸爸们提供时尚资讯以及为父母提供“环保”育儿方式信息的育儿杂志，如今不再只是摆在书报亭里出售，还做成应用放到了网上。所有这些都需要拍摄照片。《初级实用育儿》(Junior and Practical Parenting)杂志的艺术总监李·索锡(Lee Southey)表示：“越来越多的产品和时尚领域不断增加着对婴儿图片和视频的需求。”

In recent years designer labels such as Hugo Boss, Chloé, Fendi, Marc Jacobs and Stella McCartney have all added children's ranges. A classic Burberry check dress for a newborn retails at ·110 while a Dior padded jacket goes for almost ·400. Last month London hosted the first global fashion week devoted to children. Should your baby's odour need some enhancement there are perfumes too – Burberry's Baby Touch and Bulgari's Petits et Mamans, soon to be joined by Dolce and Gabbana.

最近几年，雨果博斯(Hugo Boss)、蔻依(Chloé)、芬迪(Fendi)、马克·雅各布斯(Marc Jacobs)以及斯特拉·麦卡特尼(Stella McCartney)这类设计品牌都增加了儿童系列。一件给新生儿穿的博柏利(Burberry)经典格纹外套零售价为110英镑，而一件迪奥(Dior)夹层夹克售价则将近400英镑。上个月，伦敦举办了首次以儿童为主题的全球时装周。如果你需要改善下宝宝的体味，你还可以买到婴儿香水，比如博柏利的情缘宝宝(Baby Touch)以及宝格丽(Bulgari)的甜蜜宝贝(Petits et Mamans)，杜嘉班纳(Dolce and Gabbana)不久也将发布婴儿香水。

The emotional appeal of babies for advertisers is potent, says Patti Williams, an associate professor of marketing at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. “They immediately evoke a kind of empathy and engagement, especially from parents. Images of babies have emotional power and the ability to draw a viewer in and to keep a viewer's attention.”

宾夕法尼亚大学(University of Pennsylvania)沃顿商学院(Wharton School)市场营销副教授帕蒂·威廉姆斯(Patti Williams)表示，对广告商来说，婴儿具有强大的情感力量。“他们会立刻激发人们的共鸣和情感投入，特别是在那些爸爸妈妈当中。婴儿的形象具有一种情感上的影响力，能够吸引并保持观看者的注意力。”

It is Ms Salzinger's task to defuse the pressure from the financial expectations resting on the infants. “Babies need a quiet set. They need people not to be nervous around them. They're like sponges. If you're agitated, so are they. I tell the adults to relax. It's not good if the baby looks around at anxious adults, they'll end up crying.” Often she will take the infant off the set for some quiet time in order that the adults can calm down. To make a baby cry she might take a toy away or encourage a parent to play with their child and then leave.

而赛尔辛格的一项任务，就是缓和婴儿背负的财务预期带来的压力。她表示：“宝宝们需要安静的拍摄环境。他们需要周围的人们不能太过紧张。他们就像海绵一样。如果你躁动不安，他们也会如此。我告诉那些大人放松心情。如果宝宝环顾四周看到的都是焦急的大人，这将十分不妙，他们最终会哭起来。”为了让大人们平静下来，她往往会将婴儿带离片场安静一会。而每当需要宝宝啼哭时，她会把玩具从宝宝手里抢走，或者让父母与孩子玩一会儿再离开。

Yet while the opportunities presented by baby and parenting products have increased, advertising and editorial budgets have been cut. Often the role of baby wrangler will be eliminated.

然而，尽管婴儿及育儿产品带来的机遇增多了，广告和刊物方面的预算却有所削减。在许多情况下，宝宝情绪调节师的角色会被取消。

Ms Salzinger thinks it is a false economy. “Everyone on the set has a job·.·.·.·It means we have different mindsets. A stylist wants to keep pulling the shirt down. They can't do my job, which is pulling faces and keeping the kid happy.”

赛尔辛格认为这种算盘打错了。“片场每个人都有各自的职责……也就是说，我们的头脑有不同的思维。造型师只想着把孩子的上衣拉下来。他们干不了我的活，比如做鬼脸和逗孩子开心。”

Economic constraints also mean that the days of specialist photographers are over. “Now they have to do everything,” she says. “They aren't so used to working with kids. They aren't factoring in naps to the day. They haven't brought baby wipes.” Part of her job is to educate the photographers. “They sometimes have toddlers balancing on a table without thinking of laying cushions on the floor. Or they put loud baby music on. We don't need that, we need some quiet so I can connect with the baby calmly.”

经济上的限制也意味着聘请专业摄影师的时代结束了。她表示：“如今他们不得不什么事都做。他们不太习惯与孩子打交道。他们不会考虑到孩子白天需要小睡。他们也没有带婴儿湿纸巾。”教育那些摄影师也是她职责的一部分。“他们有时候会让刚学走路的孩子颤颤巍巍地站在桌子上，却没考虑到要在地板上铺上垫子。或者他们还会把幼儿音乐的音量开得很大。我们需要的不是这个，我们需要安静，这样我才能与宝宝平静地交流。”

As a freelancer she is paid a day rate, earning most for print advertising and television commercials and least for editorial and catalogue work. She says her rates are similar to those of a photo stylist.

作为自由职业者，赛尔辛格按天收费，她的收入主要来自平面广告和电视商业广告，来自刊物和购物手册的收入最少。她说她的服务价格与平面造型师相当。

Before wrangling, Ms Salzinger worked as a studio manager for commercial photographers as well as a photographer's assistant, so she knows some of the technical aspects of a shoot: “I know where the babies need to look to get the lighting right.” Other baby wranglers come through teaching. Raised in New York, which is still her home, Ms Salzinger studied social anthropology. Both her parents are research psychologists and she sometimes calls her mother, a specialist in child development, for advice.

在做宝宝情绪调节师之前，赛尔辛格曾做过商业摄影师的工作室经理，也曾做过摄影师助理，因此她对摄影技术还是有所了解的：“我知道应该让宝宝往哪里看才能获得恰到好处的光线效果。”其他宝宝情绪调节师都曾有过教育方面的经历，而赛尔辛格过去却是研究社会人类学的。她在纽约长大，现在依然住在那里。她父母都是做研究的心理学家。有时候，她会打电话给她的母亲——一位儿童成长方面的专家——征求意见。

She does not feel comfortable speaking about the commercialisation of childhood and parenthood because she is not a parent. “I've heard a lot of different things and would have to leave that to the social scientists who can do controlled studies.”

对于把儿童和父母的角色商业化的问题，她谈起来十分为难，因为她没做过母亲。“我听说过各种不同说法，这个问题恐怕得交给那些社会学家，他们能进行对照研究。”

However, she does refuse to work on shoots that encourage the sexualisation of young girls. “In any case, those photographers don't tend to want a wrangler. They don't want the girls to smile, they want them to look adult. It irks me.”

不过，她的确会拒绝参加那些表现年幼女孩性感的摄影工作。“不管怎样，那些摄影师也不会想要情绪调节师。他们根本不想让那些女孩微笑，他们想要她们看起来成人化。这让我很讨厌。”

Acknowledging that the children she works with are there to sell something, she does, however, “like to think that [they learn] something. The younger babies sometimes take their first steps on camera while we are trying to get them to stand.

尽管她承认，她工作中的那些孩子们是为了推销某种东西来到片场的，然而她“更愿意认为（他们学到了）什么东西。有时候年幼点的宝宝们是在我们试图让他们站起来时，在镜头前迈出了人生的第一步”。

“The older kids can see that if they really try they can do it. And it is something they accomplish on their own – so it makes them feel cool.”

“而年长些的孩子则能够从这一过程中认识到，只要他们真地去做他们就能做到。而且这是他们凭自己的努力做到的事，这会令他们感觉很棒。”

The parents generally leave her alone to get on with the job. Though she has had to disappoint one grandmother determined that her perpetually crying baby would be a star. “In the end I had to take her by the hand and lead her off the set.”

通常，家长们会让她独立完成这一工作。不过她曾不得不令一位奶奶失望，这位女士坚决认为她哭个不停的宝宝将成为明星。“最终我不得不牵着她的手将她领出片场。”