New Delhi: The latest pitchman in Samsung's marketing machine: an unwitting President Barack Obama.
Boston Red Sox baseball player David Ortiz snapped a selfie with the president at a White House event using a Samsung phone and tweeted it to his followers Tuesday. It was resent by tens of thousands of Twitter users, and Samsung retweeted the photo as an ad. The company also said in a tweet that the photo was taken with a Samsung phone.
The White House press secretary said Wednesday that Obama was not aware of the marketing stunt. Ortiz's agent did not respond to questions.
Remind anyone of Ellen DeGeneres' celebrity-happy selfie from the Oscars? That was also taken with a Samsung phone and retweeted millions of times.
Samsung, the world's largest maker of smartphones, is making a name for itself as an aggressive, off-beat marketer. The company used its outsized ad budget to poke fun at its top rival, iPhone maker Apple, as well as people who purchase Apple products. It was also an Oscars sponsor and has a deal with Ortiz.
