back to article White House blasts Samsung for tweeting Obama-Ortiz selfie

The White House has criticised Samsung for tweeting a selfie taken by Boston Red Sox player David Ortiz of himself with the US President, using a Sammy mobe. Big Papi, Big Selfie. RT @DavidOrtiz What an honor! Thanks for the #selfie, @BarackObama pic.twitter.com/3I7ckLjquf — Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) April 1, 2014 …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not News...

    See title

  2. photobod

    How curious - a publicity photogaph that can't be used for publicity

    I'm at a bit of loss to work out what the complaint is about exactly.

    According to the story, the 'photo-opportunity' was set up specifically in order to have the resulting images used for commercial purposes - last time I looked, the media companies were, after all, commercial entities - with the full cooperation of all parties.

    So, a picture which was knowingly posed in the expectation it would be published by commercial entities somehow can't be used commercially after all?

    1. Charles Manning

      Not curious at all

      Create a controversy around it, therefore more people retweet it and more news sites link to it and more people view it.

      I would not have seen it if it was not for this article, nor would 99% or El Reg readers.

      Sheer brilliance from the White House PR people!

  3. Eddy Ito

    How dare they retweet a tweet that's been retweeted 40,000 times! Who do they think they are? Apple?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There goes another round against Apple in the courts... Nobody in the New Establishment will want to take sides with someone who blasphemed the sacred image of El Presidento.

    Probably Putin's fault...... PUUUTTTTTTIIIINNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!

  5. slooth

    Whose coat tails?

    "White House press secretary Jay Carney said yesterday that the administration was not impressed with Sammy riding on Obama's coat-tails."

    Why does Jay Carney think that Obama has more followers than David Ortiz? Maybe Sammy is riding on David Ortiz's coat-tails. These politicians are so full of themselves......

  6. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Meh

    Translation

    We didn't think of it first and make an exclusive deal with the highest bidder for the photo.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Translation

      Right. The government of the United States is mad because it missed an opportunity to license a selfie of a ballplayer. Its one shot at the big time, lost forever!

      *boggle*

  7. Sean Kennedy

    There's a certain amount of irony in the president, or at least his administration, getting up in arms about how personal data is used.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Aaand you win the comments section of this article.

      1. Nunyabiznes

        What he said.

    2. Al Jones

      It's not about "personal data" - it's about a marketing campaign using the Presidents image. We all know that Obama pushed hard to be allowed keep his Blackberry when first elected to the office, but it would have been inappropriate if Blackberry had run an ad campaign based on that.

      Samsung's Selfie campaign may be a lot more informal than a megabucks Madison Ave advertising blitz, but it's still using the President's image to sell phones, and that's a bit out of line.

      1. Oninoshiko

        but we all already know, the advertisement is already there. Sammy didn't even say they prez likes their products, they said a baseball player who met him did, which is true (I assume, If Ortiz wanted a different phone, he makes enough to get one).

        This is not out of line, what's out of line is the prez's opinion on metadata collection and spying.

      2. Charles Manning

        If he was in the privacy of his own home, he'd have a right to privacy.

        When he's standing around in a public place, setting up a PR shot, the expectation of privacy rings a bit hollow.

        Obama's PR folk set the record for constraining how the president's image is managed. They even hand out "official" photos to be used of press conferences etc. They set this selfie up as a PR stunt. They wanted to manage the image and its use. Unfortunately for them it got away.

        All they can do now is make a song-and-dance about it so that more people see it.

  8. ShadowedOne

    Considering the President's personal intervention not all that long ago, on Apple's behalf. I'm thinking it's more to do with the company in question (ie. Samsung) rather than other reason they make up as an excuse.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You're a moron

      The president didn't "personally intervene" on their behalf, he approved something his underlings recommended, and if he was such an Apple fan he'd have been pushing to dump his Blackberry for an iPhone, would he not?

      But sure, if you want to live in your fantasy Apple-hating world where anything done against Samsung is part of a global conspiracy against them led by Apple and includes people all the way up to the president of the United States, go right ahead. There was nothing in this article mentioning Apple, but it is amazing how the Apple haters come out of the woodwork in the comments sections and mention them in half the comments.

  9. 404

    El Presidente

    Must have His cut.

    1. Rick Giles
      Pirate

      @404 Re: El Presidente

      He's already getting his cut.

      He's screwed 6 million+ people out of there employer backed insuarnce to get them onto the State plan.

      I can wait for the 2014 elections to get the Dems out or Congress and 2016 can't get hear fast enough.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: @404 El Presidente

        'State plan'? Are you as stupid as you type, or just a troll?

        That "six million" number, for the benefit of people who aren't used to the overwhelming propensity of tea party lunatics to play fast and loose with anything resembling the truth, is meaningless, as it includes people whose plans were swapped for ones with more benefits (and often lower prices) by their insurers. By Mr. Giles's logic, if your car insurance company calls you up and says, "Hey, you had plan X with a $500 deductible but we switched it for plan Y with a $400 deductible instead, and it'll cost you $100/month less", you'd have been "screwed out of your car insurance for a government plan".

        Which is the second bit: There is no government plan. If you have don't have insurance, you can get it *through one of the exchanges* - which, incidentally, Republican governors have been deliberately sabotaging, meaning they've been actively preventing their own citizens from getting better (or any) insurance just so they can claim that Obamacare is a failure - but the providers are all private insurance companies.

        And even if what Mr. Giles said had even the slightest grain of truth to it, it wouldn't make any sense at all in the context of this discussion, given that it's difficult to imagine how any of this personally benefits Obama. Though I'm sure you could just invent something out of thin air...

        In summary, Giles isn't just full of shit, he's a container full of shit which is itself comprised of solidified shit, with a shit stopper on top. He's among the vanguard of the brave new world of American political discourse, which seeks to defeat "the enemy" at all costs, and has absolutely no compunctions about using blatant, bald-faced lies and slander to achieve its ends. The divisiveness and anger that this strategy is sowing in the US is probably the greatest danger the country has faced since the second world war, perhaps since the civil war. He and those like him are deliberately turning Americans against one another and demonizing their fellow citizens and country as a whole, just so they can win at any cost. The American right wing is like a patient in the hospital who thinks his doctor is incompetent, and, when he realizes he's getting better, jumps off the balcony in order to prove the doctor wrong.

        I'm not sure that anything can be done about this kind of psychotic self-hatred, but I at least hope people come to see it for what it is.

        If you've got a problem with poor people having access to healthcare, fine. Say it. Argue your case. But don't lie and scheme and destroy your own nation out of anger and spite because most people disagree with you.

        1. 404

          Re: @David W.

          1. Considering the voting public is split, and half of those are conservative, I'd say at most, 50% 'of the people' are for Obamacare.

          2. ACA was passed in the middle of the night without ONE Republican vote. Not one.

          3. Everything is more expensive with health insurance, deductibles higher, premiums higher.

          4. EVERY point/promise Obama and his minions made was broken. You can keep your doctor, not. You can keep your insurance, not. It will be cheaper, not.

          5. I cannot find a doctor for my wife within 150 miles that will treat her since we lost her doctor to ACA. Costs me $250 + prescriptions at the emergency room every 30 days just to *get* her meds Under the Bronze plan which was all I could afford.

          So, without further adieu, Go Fuck Yourself, Sir.

          See? Wasn't that nice, you democrat talking points regurgitator? I said 'Sir'.

          ;)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: @David W.

            "5. I cannot find a doctor for my wife within 150 miles that will treat her since we lost her doctor to ACA. Costs me $250 + prescriptions at the emergency room every 30 days just to *get* her meds Under the Bronze plan which was all I could afford."

            Whereas before you had some kind of miraculous insurance plan which was superior to the ACA plan, but was nevertheless phased out because it filed to meet the ACA's minimum requirements for coverage?

            You might want to get a dental plan while you're at it - your teeth must have a lot of holes after all the lies that have gone through them. Are you proud of what you do? Do you seriously feel better about yourself after you stomp out yet another load of misinformation and bile, whose only purpose is *literally to make your own country worse so you can claim the 'other guy' did it*?

            Yeah. You're a real fucking patriot. I'd sooner break bread in hell with Osama Bin Laden than with the likes of you - at least he had an ideology to fight for, twisted and horrible as it was; you and those like you only fight to make the other guy lose. Bin Laden was at least evil, but you - you're just a hole in the air.

            1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

              Re: Re: @David W.

              "Bin Laden was at least evil, but you - you're just a hole in the air."

              All right, chum, we get the point: is there really any need for this?

              C.

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: @David W.

                "All right, chum, we get the point: is there really any need for this?"

                It's not your country that he and his ilk are trying to destroy. I'm sick of these people getting the last word and going unchallenged, like schoolyard bullies, because people lack the courage to call them out on their actions. From your perspective it's not a big deal, but as an American, this attitude - the scorched-earth, win-by-destruction policy that has overtaken politics since 2008 - is terrifying, and the sheepish, simpering refusal of moderates to acknowledge the poisonousness of this brand of public discourse is even more frightening.

                The problem is that the absurd lies are left alone, because they're too ridiculous to rebut - so unreasonable that there's no point; you fight with a pig and you get dirty and the pig likes it, right? - but with every forum post, every chain email, every Facebook share, the lies become more and more normal, and eventually, the 'moderate' position shifts. When the extremist Republicans said, "Austerity is necessary or the country is doomed!", the moderate path was at least reasonable. But now the extremists say, "Defaulting on the debt is good policy!" and the 'moderate' path has become what was unthinkable previously.

                What the hell good does it do to fight it out here? I don't know. But this kind of thing isn't trolling; it does its damage simply by existing, by being read and shifting the goal posts that tiny bit each time. And I'm sick of letting these people do whatever the hell they want, so if you're fine with him beating up the skinny kids in your schoolyard, at least let me take a swing back at the fucker. I might not connect, but at least I'm not sitting on my ass doing nothing.

        2. SumDood

          Re: @404 El Presidente

          "If you've got a problem with poor people having access to healthcare, fine. Say it. Argue your case. But don't lie and scheme and destroy your own nation out of anger and spite because most people disagree with you."

          Or, alternatively, do lie and scheme and destroy your own nation out of anger and spite because many people will not be over-concerned if those who have a problem with poor people having access to healthcare, well, evolve themselves out of existence.

          Just pondering alternative outcomes.

        3. Rick Giles
          Pirate

          Re: @404 El Presidente

          DavidW.

          I had a long reply ready to type out, but when I thought about it, all it really came down to was, GO Fuck Yourself.

          That is the kind of idiotic Democrat ranting that keeps driving this country to brink of financial ruin.

          And, for the record, I am not against poor people getting insurance. This just isn't the way to do it.

          Before you ask, No, I don't know of a better plan, but this one is most definately crap.

  10. Tromos

    Samsung owes the White House thanks...

    ...for Streisand effect upping the effectiveness of their tweet by an order of magnitude or two.

  11. mIRCat
    Big Brother

    Bad press not included...

    "… And we certainly object in this case," he said.

    More of a fanboy, huh?

    Silly Korean company thinking it can make a profit off of the P.O.T.U.S.! Buy 'Merkan!

  12. Phil W
    Joke

    Admition

    Ortiz as, from a logical grammatical point of view anyway, admitted to this being something he was paid for.

    “It had nothing to do with no deals,”

    The use of the double negative "nothing" and "no" logically cancel other out, meaning he is really saying there was a deal.

    Is this down to poor education and/or a weak grasp of the proper use of the English language?

    Or is it really a super clever way of letting everyone know he used the President to get paid while hiding it behind this grammatical camouflage?

    Who can say?......

  13. JaitcH
    Thumb Down

    "As a rule, the White House objects to ..."

    Who is this guy? He still visits the toilet.

    As a rule the White house ... doesn't murder American citizens without a trial;

    As a rule the White house ... doesn't tap everyone's telephones (except Nixon);

    As a rule the White house ... doesn't seek revenge on Whistleblowers;

    As a rule the White house ... doesn't lie as egregiously as this one has.

    The people own the White House, the occupants are temporary tenants. Landlords set the rules of Tenancy.

    There wouldn't be a problem if it was Apple, Boeing or Lockheed, et al.

  14. John 104

    Act Like a President...

    Maybe if Obama acted like a world leader instead of "one of the guys" he wouldn't have to deal with this sort of thing?

    taking selfies is fine if you are a private individual, but I'm sorry, I expect more mature behavior out of my president. Unfortunately I'm stuck with this idiot for a few more years...

    1. Sean Kennedy

      Re: Act Like a President...

      taking selfies is fine if you are a private individual, but I'm sorry, I expect more mature behavior out of my president. Unfortunately I'm stuck with this idiot for a few more years...

      Then we'll get an entirely new idiot to tolerate for at least 4 years.

      And no; selfies are not "fine". Tolerated, fine, but they're idiotic.

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