“Selfies” with President Obama in them could soon be a thing of the past, after a baseball star visiting the White House took a shot of himself with the President — for a Samsung publicity stunt.
“Maybe this will be the end of all selfies,” White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer said about the incident Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “(Obama) obviously didn’t know anything about Samsung’s connection to this.”
Baseball slugger David Ortiz of the World Series champion Boston Red Sox took the shot on April 1 when his team was invited to the White House to be congratulated by the President. It was revealed a day later that the photo, taken with Ortiz’s Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phone, was actually orchestrated by the Korean telecom giant.
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“Someone who uses the President’s likeness to promote a product… that’s a problem with the White House,” Pfeiffer added Sunday. “We’ve had conversations with Samsung about this and have expressed our concerns.”
Ortiz snapped the seemingly unplanned shot while onstage with Obama, as the Red Sox celebrated their 2013 World Series title.
Ortiz tweeted the picture, prompting more than 42,000 retweets, including one by the official Samsung account — to the company’s more than 5.2 million Twitter followers.
After the stunt, Samsung revealed it had a marketing deal with Ortiz and admitted that company officials had “worked with David and the team on how to share images with fans.”
What an honor! Thanks for the #selfie, @BarackObama pic.twitter.com/y5Ww74sEID
— David Ortiz (@davidortiz) April 1, 2014