White House To Ban Selfies With Obama?

The World Series champion Boston Red Sox visited the White House Tuesday morning. Designated hitter David Ortiz took a selfie with the president that quickly went viral. It turns out that selfie was used in a promotion for Samsung.

Senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer appeared on Face The Nation and was asked about the selfie. He said “Well he obviously didn’t know anything about Samsung’s connection to this. And perhaps, maybe this will be the end of all selfies. But in general, whenever someone tries to use the president’s likeness to promote a product, that’s a problem with the White House. We’ve had conversations about this and have expressed our concerns.”

Ortiz, who is from the Dominican Republic, tweeted “I love this country” from the south lawn. Ortiz also tweeted during the tour of the White House before the ceremony.

The tweet had more than 48,000 favorites and 45,000 retweets as of Sunday evening.

President Obama mentioned Ortiz in his remarks “of course, the legend, the only man to play for all three championship teams, the biggest bat in the dugout, Big Papi.” Big Papi is Ortiz’ nickname. He also mentioned “Fellow Hawaiian” Shane Victorino, who missed the trip due to illness.

Obama mentioned the Boston bombings in his speech. “And we knew last year, even as we mourned the lost and cared for the wounded and resolved to carry on, that the moment would come when the Sox would be champions again and the crowds would gather for a parade down Boylston once more, and that’s exactly what happened. That’s how this team helped Boston to heal. And true to that spirit, in just a few weeks, something else we resolved last year will come to pass: On the third Monday in April, the world will return to Boston and run harder than ever and cheer louder than ever for the 118th Boston Marathon. That will happen.” The Red Sox adopted the phrase “Boston Strong” after the bombings.

Obama, who is an unabashed Chicago White Sox fan said “Love this guy, even a White Sox fan can appreciate these guys.”

After the selfie went viral, it was discovered Ortiz has a marketing deal with Samsung for the Galaxy Note 3 phone. Samsung thanked Ortiz via Twitter, possibly using the president to promote their product The Christian Science Monitor reported.