Samsung Pays David Ortiz To Take Selfie With President Obama

It's the selfie of President Obama and Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz that's now raising a storm of controversy. 

Ortiz—known as Big Papi—took the selfie during a White House ceremony Tuesday honoring the World Series champs. One of the Red Sox players could be heard saying, "Cha-ching!"

That's right—phone maker Samsung now confirms that Ortiz took the selfie as part of a promotion for its mobile phones just a day after signing a lucrative endorsement deal with the company.  

Samsung says in a statement to INSIDE EDITION: "We were thrilled to see the special, historic moment David Ortiz captured with his Galaxy Note 3 during his White House visit.  When we heard about the visit to the White House, we worked with David and the team on how to share images with fans."

But there's an uproar because the president had no idea the selfie was an ad for Samsung. White House press secretary Jay Carney wrote in an email: "POTUS did not know."  [Source: bloomberg.com]

Boston Globe columnist Eric Wilbur spoke to INSIDE EDITION's Paul Boyd. Boyd said, "Something just didn't feel right about this selfie."

Wilbur said, "Sure. Basically, if you want to get down to it, Samsung tricked the President of the United States into a marketing ploy, which is something that feels wrong."

Samsung was also behind this now famous selfie taken during last month's Oscars telecast that became the most retweeted photo of all time.

Marketing and branding consultant Peter Shankman told INSIDE EDITION, "Samsung, between this and the Oscars, they've had a really, really good 2014 so far."

Watch More of Shankman's Interview

After the controversial selfie was taken, Ortiz immediately tweeted it along with the message: "What an honor! Thanks for the #selfie, @barack obama."

But it's got a long way to go. So far its been retweeted over 39,000 times.