On a pristine Malibu beach, Jennifer Lopez is frolicking with her cherubic twins, swooping them up in her arms and twirling around. It’s a gorgeous day.

A few feet away, a photographer and a mob of assistants are snapping away, moving equipment around and yelling instructions at her.

Ah, the magic of Hollywood family life!

In another section of the behind-the-scenes video about Lopez’s new Gucci campaign, which includes the above footage, the singer beams as she describes the pure fun of shooting the print ad, which would run in conjunction with a $1 million donation from Gucci to UNICEF. “When Frida [Giannini, Gucci’s creative director] asked me and my babies to be a part of this,” she says, “of course I had to say yes.”

At the end of the video — and the shoot — Lopez jumps into a two-seater sports car with husband Marc Anthony and speeds away, sans children. (Presumably, they got driven home by the help.)

There’s been an unprecedented deluge of celebrity offspring popping up in ads, on reality TV and on magazine covers lately. It’s the latest quick-fix for flagging fame. If there’s one surefire way to soften your image, drum up support for your brand or simply remind the public that you exist, it’s putting your kids in front of the cameras to show how tightly knit your family is.

From Rebecca Romijn’s “Got milk?” ad with her twin baby girls to cameos by Bethenny Frankel’s baby on her reality show, it’s clear an adorable son or daughter is the hottest current celeb accessory.

Not everyone thinks it’s so cute.

“Yeah, that’s not family time,” says Corey Feldman, the 1980s teen icon and father of 7-year-old Zen.

“It’s nauseating to see all these people putting their kids on TV and selling pictures of them to People magazine — like, in the first couple days they have kids!”

Feldman, an ex-child actor who has spoken out about the dangers of early fame, made the unconventional choice to keep his son off-screen for his 2007 “scripted reality” show, which was shot in his house. “There’s a big difference between trying to live your life as a celebrity with a child and exploiting your kid,” he says. “I think it’s very wrong when you see stars go out there and put their kids on a reality show, or stick them in the business, to keep the family name alive.”

But Feldman is clearly in the minority. With more celebrity access than ever thanks to the Internet and 24/7 entertainment programming, there are countless ways for stars to show off their little bundles of joy for fun and profit. As Kimora Lee Simmons put it to the site Celebrity Baby Scoop about her fashion line recently, “My kids are the face of the brand. People have seen my kids in ads, on TV and on the runway for years . . . they’ve been on the runway since they were little.” (She added that she would like another boy to add to her brood of three, “because then it would be two and two.”)

Lest child labor laws be cited, parents are often quick to state that no arms were twisted to make whatever promo stunt took place.

Cindy Crawford, who appeared with her kids in a recent commercial for Propel Zero bottled water, suggested that it was they who talked her into it, not the other way around.

“Originally, I didn’t want to use my kids in the commercial because I don’t want to make them feel like they have to work . . . I don’t ever want to say, ‘Well, sorry, you’re booked,’ ” she told Parade magazine.

“But the night before the commercial, they heard my husband and I talking, and they heard that we were having ‘fake’ kids. They were like, ‘You can’t have fake kids! You have to have us!’ So at the last minute, they ended up doing it.”

Tori Spelling, whose kids appear on her latest reality show, “sTORIbook Weddings,” visited the “Today” show to emphasize that “we have a very small crew,” and that “when they get old enough, if they don’t want to be a part of it, the show’s done. I tell them that all the time.”

This was not, however, enough to pacify her mother, Candy Spelling, who — in an unwittingly hilarious move — sent an open letter to her daughter to TMZ, complaining that “my grandchildren have become reality show props.”

When it comes to the perils of kid pimping, one need look no further than the Gosselins, whose reality show about their large brood, “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” devolved into a publicity train wreck.

Some experts worry about the effects of early immersion in showbiz. “A parent should be aware of the potential risks,” says Manhattan-based psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert. “Long hours, isolation and possible jealousy from peers. And, of course, being sucked into a world of superficiality.”

Dr. Tanya Remer Altmann, pediatrician and author of “Mommy Calls: Dr. Tanya Answers Parents’ Top 101 Questions About Babies and Toddlers,” has mixed feelings on the subject. She says that although “having kids see their parents work can be a positive experience,” strict attention should be paid to children’s well-being if they are included in a shoot.

“Children need frequent breaks for nutrition, rest and education,” says Altmann, but “if the hours are limited and the content is family-appropriate, it can be a positive experience.”

The era of the reality show may be new, but pimping out your kids is a Hollywood tradition.

“In the 1940s and ’50s, it was so similar to today,” says Karen Sternheimer, author of “Celebrity Culture and the American Dream: Stardom and Social Mobility.” “If someone was pregnant, it was a huge story . . . And people like Joan Crawford — she adopted those children to help keep up her career. She was unmarried and [approaching 40], which now is not unusual, but this was the [1940s and ’50s].”

The headline-grabbing move, Sternheimer says, softened the public’s perception of Crawford. Which presents a parallel with the similarly image-troubled Katherine Heigl, who was shot in December 2010 for the cover of W magazine holding her adopted baby daughter.

“Clearly what she was trying to do was rebrand herself,” says Lilit Marcus, editor-in-chief of the pop culture blog Crushable. “She has a reputation for being difficult. So — do a really down-to-earth interview and pose with pictures of your adopted Korean baby who has a heart problem!”

Heigl (or her handlers) certainly knows how to connect with American audiences, says one expert on the subject. “There’s an enormous amount of uncertainty in the culture right now, and I think that’s fertile ground for reassuring messages,” says Adweek’s Robert Klara. “What these celebrities are doing is they’re showing you that even though they’re celebrities, they’re just like you and me — they have families, they love their children.”

But some, like Feldman, bristle at the idea of showcasing that love in the spotlight. “Within the first two weeks of my son’s life,” he says, “we got an offer from some agent for him to be a Gerber baby. We were getting hit up constantly . . . We said no to everything.

“If you’re very proud of your child,” he says, “just go get some family portraits made. Like most people do.”