Culture

The David Ortiz-Obama Selfie Was Set Up by Samsung

Samsung certainly loves selfies. Like Ellen DeGeneres' record-breaking selfie at the Oscars, the David Ortiz-President Obama selfie from yesterday was part of a campaign from Samsung to sell its Galaxy Note 3 phone.

By Eric Levenson
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This article is from the archive of our partner .

Samsung certainly loves selfies. Like Ellen DeGeneres' record-breaking selfie at the Oscars, the David Ortiz-President Obama selfie on Tuesday was part of a campaign from Samsung to promote its Galaxy Note 3 phone. "It was an honor to help [Ortiz] capture such an incredible and genuine moment of joy and excitement," Samsung said in a statement.

As the World Series champion Boston Red Sox team visited the White House, Ortiz snapped this photo of him and Obama posing with a fresh Red Sox "Obama" jersey.

The picture didn't come close to Ellen's record of 3.4 million retweets, but more than 38,000 retweets is nothing to sneeze at. During the Oscars, Ellen's sponsorship of the phone was more obvious, as she frequently referred to Samsung and pulled out the phone several times. With Ortiz's photo, though, Samsung's role in the selfie was less advertised.

In a company message, Samsung took some credit for Ortiz's picture. "Similar to the selfie Ellen was able to capture during the Oscars, this was an opportunity for David to share the incredible moment with his fans," the company said. “When we heard about the visit to the White House, we worked with David and the team on how to share images with fans."

Ortiz only recently signed a deal with Samsung, Sports Business Journal notes, to "be its MLB social media insider." As part of that deal, Ortiz would be "tweeting and sending photos on Samsung's behalf." With the Obama selfie, Samsung certainly has reason to be happy with their investment.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.