(PCM) After David Ortiz snapped a highly shared selfie with President Obama during the Boston Red Sox’s visit to The White House, it seems the snap could end up bringing about the ban of all selfies taken with the President.
It turns out that what appeared to be a spur of the moment photo opp, turned out to be part of a promotion that Ortiz was working on with phone manufacturer Samsung. It seems that Ortiz signed an endorsement deal with Samsung the day before the visit, agreeing to be the company’s “MLB social media insider”.
White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer claims that President Obama had no knowledge about Samsung’s connection to the image and with the news coming to light, it may just be the end of all White House selfies.
This is not the first time that Samsung has stirred up controversy with it’s sneaky advertising techniques. If your recall the famous ‘selfie that broke the internet’ taken by Ellen DeGeneres at the Oscars, was also an alleged paid for promotional idea by Samsung.
The use of selfies as a promotional tool especially when it is being used by celebrities and brands is a sure fire way to create a viral buzz. The use of slick promotional tactics by companies is not a new thing at all. In fact I just learned today that every time a Super Bowl champion claims “I’m going to Disney World” when asked what they plan to do after the big win it is actually in fact a paid advertising promotion from Disney. And here we thought a bunch of star athletes really wanted to visit Disney World? Geez! Do we feel duped!
Samsung released a statement in regards to the Ortiz selfie with President Obama claiming “When we heard about the visit to the White House, we worked with David and the team on how to share images with fans. We didn’t know if or what he would be able to capture using his Note 3 device.”
Ortiz claims the photo was taken on a whim and had nothing to do with his corporate sponsorship deal with Samsung. The White House does not seem to be buying that story and their lawyers have contacted Samsung is regards to the incident, but so far no legal action has been taken.
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