Earlier this week, the World Series champion Boston Red Sox used their day off in Baltimore to take a quick trip to Washington DC to be celebrated by Jay Mariotti’s Frankenstein, President Barack Obama. The event was pretty standard – the Prez gets his own jersey from a championship sports team – but it was highlighted by Jonny Gomes’s amazing star-spangled blazer, and David Ortiz’s seemingly-impromtu selfie with Obama.
Then a crappy thing happened. Because Ortiz took the selfie on his Samsung Galaxy phone, Samsung took advantage of the moment and reminded the world that the Galaxy is the preferred camera phone for the most important selfies ever taken. Because of that cheap plug, I and so many others figured that this was just another shameless advertisement moment that had duped us into thinking that something was actually spontaneous and fun. But out of the ashes of enjoyment rises White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to lay down the hammer of swift American justice on Samsung.
“As a rule, the White House objects to attempts to use the president’s likeness for commercial purposes,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said during his daily news briefing on Thursday. “And we certainly object in this case.” (Via the Boston Globe)
It’s important to note that Carney was asked about this selfie in between questions about negotiations between Israel and Palestine and the shootings at Fort Hood, so I’m really happy to know that we’re working with priorities right now.
“I’m not going to get into the counsel’s discussions,” he said.
But he hinted that this was not the first time the White House had been unhappy with the use of the president’s image for commercial purposes.
“It does stand to reason we have objected in the past. We object now,” said Carney, who just two days earlier showed up at the podium in his Red Sox cap. ”But I’m not going to get into the manner of objection.”
But we wanted you to get into it, Jay. There’s literally nothing more important on this planet than a selfie.
