Kudos to Samsung for what might be the strongest viral marketing move ever seen. From the New York Daily News:
The seemingly candid photograph Boston Red Sox slugger Ortiz took last Tuesday of himself with President Obama might have been the last ever presidential selfie, a top White House aide said Sunday.
Ortiz took the selfie with Obama Tuesday during the team’s visit to the White House. The pic appeared spontaneous, but then it was revealed Big Papi has a deal with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phone to perform public relations stunts like the Obama photo op.
“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.”
“Someone who uses the President’s likeness to promote a product… that’s a problem with the White House,” Pfeiffer added. “We’ve had conversations with Samsung about this and have expressed our concerns.”
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.”
Ortiz snapped the seemingly unplanned shot while onstage with Obama, as the Red Sox celebrated their 2013 World Series title at the White House.
Ortiz tweeted the picture, prompting more than 38,000 retweets, including one by the official Samsung account — to the company’s more than 5.2 million Twitter followers.
The incident isn’t the first time Obama has found himself in selfie hot water — nor is it the first time Samsung has struck marketing gold with a secretive selfie promo.
Last month, Academy Awards host Ellen DeGeneres used her Samsung Galaxy Note 3, during the telecast, to take and tweet a selfie of a group of A-list actors that quickly became the most re-tweeted post of all time.
And in December, President Obama was roundly criticized for granting a selfie request to Denmark Prime Minister Helle Thorning, who took a pic with Obama, herself and British Prime Minister David Cameron at the memorial service of Nelson Mandela.
