Sports

White House Balks at Ortiz Selfie with Obama

The White House issued a rebuke after it was revealed the selfie was part of a promotional deal with Samsung.

The White House is playing hardball after the revelation that David Ortiz's selfie with President Obama earlier this week was part of a Samsung promotion.

ABC News reported Samsung had a deal with the Boston Red Sox slugger to take photos as Obama honored the team for its World Series trophy Tuesday. Ortiz's selfie was promoted by Samsung on Twitter—and it was retweeted more than 40,000 times.

The White House said Obama was not aware of the Samsung deal, according to ABC.

“As the rule the White House objects to attempts to use the president’s likeness for commercial purposes,” press secretary Jay Carney said, according to ABC. “We object in this case.”

Ortiz took the photo with Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 phone, according to Boston.com. He could be heard saying "Cha-ching!" after.

Samsung was behind the selfie Ellen DeGeneres posted at this year's Oscars. It was the most retweeted post ever.


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