They say there’s no such thing as bad PR. So how is David Ortiz’s White House selfie a bad thing?
Upon critically thinking about it, one word comes to mind: brilliant.
Samsung and Ortiz have accomplished with one click of a touch screen something money can’t buy, the best PR stunt I have witnessed in recent memory. An innocent selfie has created more buzz for Samsung and Ortiz than any dollar amount could fetch.
Click on any website; Yahoo, ESPN.com, even this one, to name a few, and you’ll find a story about Samsung and the infamous selfie.
If you followed Twitter during the Red Sox trip to the White House last week, you saw reporters, players and front office personnel taking selfies and tweeting them out so that fans could feel like they were on the White House lawn with the team.
According to Sports Business Journal, Ortiz recently signed a deal with Samsung to be its “MLB social media insider.” Good for Big Papi. He should take advantage of EVERY cent he can while he’s still viable and a worthy brand.
The president’s image isn’t supposed to be used for commercial purposes. I didn’t know Ortiz’s Twitter account was a commercial account. I thought it’s his personal one.
Samsung subsequently retweeted and now selfie-gate is in full swing. I highly doubt that Samsung requested Ortiz take one with the president and tweet it out, but I don’t think they’re complaining right about now.
Now, a host of curmudgeonly sports writers and political talk show hosts are up in arms about the incident. Why?
I can’t wrap my mind around the reasons people are complaining about this. When selfie was added to the Oxford dictionary all bets were off. Who’s gonna turn down Big Papi when he asks for a selfie? Now, I guess the answer is no one.
Over the weekend, I saw some had called Ortiz the “designated huckster” and the president a “designated hayseed.” Well then I should now be called a “designated hick.”
I applaud Ortiz for having stones to ask the president (or hayseed if you will) to take the selfie. It’s a simple photo, I could only imagine if Ortiz skipped out on the visit to the White House, there wouldn’t be any backlash to that. Just ask Tim Thomas.
