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"Red Sox slugger David Ortiz and his marketing manager say the selfie he took at the White House with President Obama was not a marketing stunt orchestrated by Samsung.\nOrtiz told The Boston Globe on Thursday that the selfie was spontaneous. \u201CI don\u2019t understand where that stuff is coming from,\" he said. \u201CThat was one of those things that just happened. I gave him the jersey, and the photographers were going to take their pictures and I thought, really at the last second, maybe I should snap a shot with my phone while I have the chance ... It had nothing to do with no deals.\u201D\nSamsung hired Ortiz to be its \"social media insider\" on April 1. Alex Radetsky, president and founder of Radegen Sports Management, the marketing firm that has represented Ortiz for 12 years, told Mashable that the deal doesn't require Ortiz to snap selfies with the President or anyone else. \"It certainly was not part of the deal. it was spontaneous on his part,\" said Radetsky. \n\"I hate to be clich\u00E9d, but it was just David being David.\"\nSee also: Apple v. Samsung Trial: 5 Things You Need to Know\nRadetsky said Samsung had been in talks with Ortiz since the end of last season. The deal was consummated during spring training. As late as March 27, Ortiz was using an iPhone to post messages and photos on Twitter, according to Echofon: \n\nOn April 1, he started using an Android phone to tweet. A story in Sports Business Journal on March 31 predicted that \"when the Red Sox visit the White House this week to commemorate their World Series victory, 'Big Papi' will be tweeting and sending photos on Samsung\u2019s behalf.\" \nThat prediction proved accurate. That day, Ortiz took a selfie with President Obama that has been retweeted more than 42,000 times:\n\nWhat an honor! Thanks for the #selfie, @BarackObama pic.twitter.com/y5Ww74sEID\n\u2014 David Ortiz (@davidortiz) April 1, 2014\n\nSince April 1, Ortiz has posted 11 photos on his Twitter feed at the time of this writing. Samsung Mobile US later retweeted the photo as well. A Samsung rep told The Boston Globe that \u201CWe were thrilled to see the special, historic moment David Ortiz captured with his Galaxy Note 3 during his White House visit. It was an honor to help him capture such an incredible and genuine moment of joy and excitement. Similar to the selfie Ellen was able to capture during the Oscars, this was an opportunity for David to share the incredible moment with his fans.\"\nThe move came after Samsung's sponsorship of the Academy Awards broadcast in March. That deal culminated with Ellen DeGeneres' star-studded selfie, which was retweeted more than 3 million times. The Wall Street Journal reported later that the stunt was part of a sponsorship and ad pact between ABC and Samsung. Samsung's media-buying firm Starcom MediaVest negotiated to have the Galaxy smartphone integrated into the show, according to the report. DeGeneres' selfie was taken with a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. \nSamsung reps could not be reached for further comment.\nTwo days after the photo circulated, White House Spokesman Jay Carney said the White House \"objected\" to the photo. \"I can tell you that as a rule the White House objects to attempts to use the President\u2019s likeness for commercial purposes.  And we certainly object in this case,\" Carney said. \nIt was unclear whether the White House planned to take any action. \nBen Sturner, president and CEO of Leverage Agency, a sports marketing firm, said it's the norm these days for social media activity to be baked into athlete sponsorship deals. \"It's smart of Samsung to say 'Use your phone wherever you can' as part of the deal,\" said Sturner. \nSturner doubts the selfie was pre-planned. \"I think it was a spur of the moment thing,\" said Sturner. If every move is pre-determined \"you lose some authenticity,\" he said.\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/04/04/ortiz-selfie-obama-no-marketing-stunt/>