Samsung's selfie shenanigans may lead to a brand new White House policy. A senior advisor said the Korean company's marketing antics—people are most familiar with Ellen Degeneres's Oscars selfie—could ban selfies with the president after Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz took one with President Obama last week. The White House has a strict policy about using the President's likeness to promote a product.
Samsung had worked with Ortiz and paid him to take a selfie with the President, without alerting White House officials, in an effort to advertise its Galaxy Note 3.
Samsung is obviously thrilled at all of the shameless publicity, saying it was proud of the "historic moment" captured by Big Papi. Members of the public will still be allowed to snap pictures of and with the President; just not selfies, according to White House officials. An official ban hasn't yet been levied just yet, though there are suggestions the gauntlet could be thrown down soon.
The PR stunt by Samsung garnered thousands of retweets on Twitter, where the photo was posted by Ortiz (and retweeted by Samsung). With that kind of exposure, that's definitely a win for Samsung. But selfie-gate 2014? That's a bummer for folks who might want to capture a moment with the President in the future. Where will the next Note 3 selfie popup? The World Cup is coming up this summer. Perhaps we'll see someone in the final game shoot a selfie just before scoring a goal.
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