White House warns presidential selfies could be banned after Samsung controversy
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Your support makes all the difference.The White House may ban presidential selfies after Barack Obama inadvertenly took part in a Samsung marketing stunt, which some described as questionable and dishonest.
Senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said the White House "had talks" with the Korean mobile giant after Red Sox player David Ortiz took a selfie with the president and was later revealed to have an endorsement deal with the company.
"(Obama) obviously didn't know anything about Samsung's connection to this," he told CBS' Face the Nation, adding "perhaps maybe this will be the end of all selfies".
Mr Ortiz, also known as 'Big Papi', tweeted out the photograph, garnering more than 38,000 retweets of his "Big Papi, Big Selfie" photograph on Wednesday.
Samsung also retweeted the post to its 5.2 million followers and later issued a statement saying it was "thrilled to see the special, historic moment David Ortiz captured with his Galaxy Note 3".
Big Papi denied the photograph was part of a deliberate marketing ploy, but the White House was quick to criticise the move as a promotional stunt on behalf of Samsung.
"As a rule the White House objects to attempts to use the president's likeness for commercial purposes," spokesman Jay Carney told The Wall Street Journal. "And we certainly object in this case."
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