网红就可以免费吃拿要？这个冰淇淋小贩的回应亮了

有些人自称社交媒体粉丝过万，拍照发个朋友圈，就想到处免费吃拿要。这种事在社交媒体时代屡见不鲜，甚至有人冒充网红混吃混喝。

在美国洛杉矶，一位有个性的冰淇淋小贩受够了这些所谓的“网红”们，他不但拒绝了“网红”免费吃冰淇淋的要求，而且还公开表示，网红吃冰淇淋要付双倍的钱，结果他自己反而成了网红。

Customers at Joe Nicchi’s ice-cream truck have increasingly had the same demand: give us your ice-cream for free.

乔·尼基的冰淇淋车近日遇到了越来越多想免费吃冰淇淋的顾客。

CVT Soft Serve, a popular truck in Los Angeles, has started to receive weekly requests from self-proclaimed Instagram “influencers” who promise to post a photo of Nicchi’s ice-cream – if they don’t have to pay. Nicchi has always said no, but this week he found an unusual way to profit off of the influencers: he publicly told them to go away.

洛杉矶的人气冰淇淋车“CVT 软冰淇淋”每周都会收到一群自称Ins网红的人的请求，他们承诺把尼基的冰淇淋图片发到网上，前提是让他们免费吃。尼基一直以来都是拒绝的，但本周他发现了一个利用网红赚钱的奇招：就是用公开的方式让网红们滚蛋。

Nicchi went viral after posting a sign that said “influencers pay double”, writing on Instagram that he would “never give you a free ice-cream in exchange for a post”. The image, tagged #InfluencersAreGross, spread around the globe, and now Nicchi says his business is booming, attracting fans across southern California who share his disdain of influencers.

尼基贴出告示，上面写着“网红付双倍钱”，并在Instagram网站上写道，他“永远也不会用免费冰淇淋来交换一个帖子”，于是他就火了。这张标签为#网红很讨厌的图片被全球转发，尼基表示现在他的生意好极了，因为吸引了南加州各地同样厌恶网红的粉丝们。

"We’re the anti-influencer influencers,” he told the Guardian on Wednesday. “It’s weird … but I think it’s really fun. I hope it inspires small businesses to hold their own and tell people to f**k off.”

他告诉《卫报》说：“我们是反网红的网红。有点怪……但我觉得还挺有趣。我希望这能激励小企业坚持立场，让混吃混喝的人滚蛋。”

Some brands and businesses now rely on Instagram “stars” to advertise their products and services, giving away free meals and hotel stays to people who post positively about the experience. The phenomenon has become so pervasive that some Instagrammers can easily scam companies. One Instagram influencer recently staged a “surprise” wedding engagement but had actually sent an itinerary to marketers months prior. It’s so trendy to be an influencer that some people have taken to pretending their content is sponsored when it’s not.

如今一些品牌和企业靠着网红“明星”们推销自己的产品和服务，他们为发赞美帖的人提供免费餐食和酒店住宿。这一现象变得非常普遍，以至于某些Ins用户可以轻易地对公司进行诈骗。一名Ins网红近日组织了一场“惊喜”订婚仪式，但实际上数月之前就已经把日程安排发给营销商了。现在做网红是一件很时髦的事，有些人甚至会假装自己的内容是他人赞助的。

Nicchi understands the importance of promotion. He’s a working actor in LA, who started CVT Soft Serve in 2014 as a way to supplement his income.

尼基明白宣传的重要性。他是洛杉矶的一名在职演员，2014年为了补贴家用他创办了CVT 软冰淇淋店。

"This is a money-making thing. I can’t give away my ice-cream for free,” he said, noting that he had paid for his first truck with his salary from shooting a commercial.

他说道：“这是赚钱的生意。我不能免费赠送我的冰淇淋。”他指出自己是用拍商业广告的收入买下第一辆卡车的。

The soft serve at CVT (which stands for his three flavor offerings: chocolate, vanilla, or twist) and his vintage-looking truck are very Instagrammable. Influencers quickly noticed. In his first year, he got a small handful of influencer offers, typically people emailing suggesting promotional deals in exchange for free ice-cream.

他卖CVT软冰淇淋（CVT象征着他提供的三种口味：巧克力、香草和双旋）所用的复古风格卡车非常适合在Ins上传播。网红们很快就注意到了这一点。开业的第一年有几位网红提出想帮他宣传，通常是发电子邮件请求用打广告来交换免费冰淇淋。

"They love using the word ‘exposure’. It’s so ridiculous,” he said.

他说：“他们喜欢用‘曝光’这个词。真可笑。”

But the frequency of the requests began to escalate – and became more uncomfortable as they started happening in person, said Nicchi: “The most painful thing for me is when they approach me at the truck.”

但是这种请求变得越来越频繁，而且开始有人当面提出来，这就让人感到不舒服了。尼基说：“最烦这种人走向我的卡车。”

escalate['ɛskəlet]: v. 使……加剧，加剧；升级，（使）恶化

It never made sense to him: “Are you out of your mind? This is four dollars. But obviously they wouldn’t be asking if people weren’t saying yes.”

他一直都不能理解这种做法：“你们的脑子坏掉了吗？这是4美元（约合27.5元人民币）的东西。但显然如果不是有人答应了他们的请求，他们也不会来问我。”

At times, the requests were particularly offensive. He said an assistant to a famous actor – a woman on a television show who he declined to name – recently asked if he would donate ice-cream to the cast and crew. In exchange, the actor offered to take a photo at his truck.

有时候，网红的请求特别气人。尼基说，有一个著名演员的助理（该女子参加了一个电视节目，不过他拒绝公开她的名字）最近问他是否愿意向剧组捐赠冰淇淋。作为交换条件，这位演员可以在冰淇淋车前拍张照片。

His response: “As much as I’d love to do that, I don’t think my kid’s school accepts celebrity photos as a form of tuition payment.”

他的回答是：“虽然我很乐意这么做，但我不认为我孩子的学校会收名人照片当学费。”

The assistant responded with a nasty and vaguely threatening message, he said, along the lines of: “I should be careful with my words … This is a very small town.”

尼基说，那位助理的反应不但很粗鲁，而且还有威胁暗示，大概意思是让我说话小心点，“这个地方很小”。

Nicchi eventually became so tired of influencers that he put up his anti-influencer sign at the truck, making clear that people who requested a free cone would get the opposite – they’d have to pay $8 instead of $4. A customer took a photo and posted it to Reddit, which then went viral.

最后尼基受够了这些网红们，于是在卡车上贴出了这张反网红告示，明确表示要求免费吃冰淇淋的人将事与愿违——他们必须付8美元才能买一个冰淇淋，而不是常规的4美元。一名顾客拍下了这张告示并发到了红迪网上，然后这张图就被传疯了。

He said he had since gotten interview requests and news coverage from across the world, and he is loving it. The number of customers doubled overnight, and he has earned thousands of new followers on Instagram.

尼基说，自那以后全球各地的采访请求和新闻报道就纷至沓来，这让他很高兴。冰淇淋顾客数量一夜之间翻番，他在Ins上也获得了成千上万的新粉丝。

"There’s something so redeeming about outing influencers,” he said, adding that many small businesses have written to him thanking him for speaking up. “I hope that more people do not allow likes and comments and followers to hold weight in the business. I want people to go to a restaurant because the food and service is fantastic.”

“赶走网红还是很有回报的，”他补充道，许多小企业都写信来感谢他敢于直言。“我希望更多的人不要允许点赞、评论和粉丝影响自己的生意。我想让人们因为美味食物和优质服务而选择一家饭店。”

Brittany Hennessy, an author who has written about influencers, said companies with marketing budgets can benefit from working with social media personalities, and that a giveaway can pay off. But a small food truck may not be a good fit, she said: “People will try and get anything for free … No real influencer would ask for a four-dollar ice-cream.”

曾报道过网红的布列塔尼·汉奈西说，有营销预算的公司可以通过和社交网红合作来受益，赠送的东西也能获得回报。但一个小小的美食车可能就不适合这么做。她说：“人们会试着得到任何免费的东西……但真正的网红不会开口要一个4美元的冰淇淋。”

While Nicchi is happy to promote his own business on social media, he said he didn’t want to depend on the platform. “If Instagram went away tomorrow, our truck would still survive. I don’t know that your ‘influencer’ business would.”

虽然尼基很愿意在社交媒体上推销自己的冰淇淋，但他说自己不想依赖这个平台。“如果明天Instagram没有了，我们的冰淇淋车依然会经营下去。我不知道你们这些网红的生意还能不能做下去。”