WASHINGTON — Red Sox slugger David Ortiz might have snapped the last White House selfie.
President Obama is considering a ban on selfies with White House guests after Ortiz apparently used his opportunity to plug corporate sponsor Samsung, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday.
“[The president] obviously didn’t know anything about Samsung’s connection to this, and perhaps maybe this will be the end of all selfies,” Pfeiffer said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“In general, whenever someone tries to use the president’s likeness to promote a product, that’s a problem with the White House,” he added.
Ortiz took the selfie in the middle of a televised event last week as Obama paid tribute to the 2013 World Series champs.
The president was all smiles for the occasion, surrounded by ballplayers and holding up a Red Sox jersey with “Obama 44” stitched across the back.
The president even asked the array of photographers to make sure they got a good picture.
”Do you mind if I take another one, with my own?” Ortiz asked the president.
“He wants to do a selfie. It’s the Big Papi selfie,” joked Obama.
But Obama soon soured on the pic. It turned out that Ortiz had just inked a sponsorship deal with Samsung — and the company lost no time retweeting the shot to its 5 million followers.
Samsung has been called out about it by the White House, Pfeiffer said.
“Well, we’ve had conversations with Samsung about this and expressed our concerns,” he said.
Pfeiffer didn’t say if legal action would be brought against Samsung.
Pressed by host Bob Schieffer to relay what Samsung’s response was to the White House complaints, Pfeiffer demurred.
“We’ll leave that conversation between the lawyers,” he said.
Immediately after Ortiz took the picture, someone — later believed to be Ortiz — yelled out “cha-ching.”
But Ortiz insisted to the Boston Globe that he decided to take the picture on a whim at the last second and it had “nothing to do with deals.”
It wasn’t the first time Obama had a bad experience with a selfie.
In December, a photographer caught Obama taking a selfie with knockout Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
It didn’t help the president that first lady Michelle Obama was sitting next to him with a disapproving frown on her face — but it helped turn the photo viral.