After the recent Big Papi and President Obama selfie turned out to be a Samsung marketing setup, the White House took a hard stance against any company using the President’s image for publicity stunts, CNET reports. “As a rule, the White House objects to attempts to use the president’s likeness for commercial purposes,” the White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Thursday during the regular briefing. “And we certainly object in this case.” However, Carney did not reveal how the White House is objecting, and whether Samsung has been contacted to remove the image.
David Ortiz, who endorses Samsung products, told The Boston Globe that the selfie idea was his own. “I wasn’t trying to do anything,” Big Papi said. “It just happened in that moment. It was a fun thing. I signed that deal with Samsung a few months ago. They didn’t know what would happen. Nobody did.”
The Red Sox have also denied knowing anything about the selfie in advanced.
However, these statements sort-of contradict Samsung’s own statement to the Globe on Wednesday. “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,” Samsung said. The selfie was then retweeted by Samsung.
In a recent appearance on Ellen, President Obama joked about her famous Oscar selfie – also a Samsung marketing setup – which dethroned his own retweets record saying that it was “a pretty cheap stunt.”
Videos showing both Obama’s selfie with Ortiz and his “cheap stunt” comments follow below.
