Well, it was fun while it lasted.
Just days after David Ortiz’s selfie with President Obama went viral the aftermath is beginning to play out, and the fun and games are over. The White House wasn’t smiling over the fact Ortiz took and tweeted the picture as part of his endorsement deal with Samsung.
White House Senior Advisor Dan Pfeiffer spoke about how the candid selfie may have doomed all others, via NY Daily News:
““Maybe this will be the end of all selfies…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.”
The picture would go on to get over 38,000 retweets, and one can see the issue at hand with Ortiz using the opportunity as a paid for promo, essentially. Call this the end of a selfie era.