During the Oscars this past Sunday, host Ellen DeGeneres managed to take the most famous selfie of all time. During the middle of the awards show, she organized a quick selfie with Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Lupita Nyong’o, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Kevin Spacy, Bradley Cooper, Julia Roberts, Channing Tatum, Jared Leto, and Lupita’s brother. Ellen then challenged everyone watching the show to make it the most retweeted tweet ever. This challenge was met with such extremes that shortly after Ellen tweeted the photo, Twitter crashed for a few minutes because there were so many people retweeting the photo (myself included). The famous selfie has now become the most retweeted tweet ever, surpassing President Barack Obama’s “Four More Years” tweet after he won reelection.
While this selfie was one of the most memorable parts of the night, did anyone notice the phone she was using? Throughout the show, Ellen was taking photos and tweeting them to her followers. However, one thing many people have not commented on is the phone she is using. Samsung, a sponsor of the Oscars is the brand of phone she was using throughout the night. However, they did not pay for her to be using the phone throughout the evening, it was simply Ellen’s or the producers choice. Therefore, Samsung got some of the best product placement ever during the show without paying the hefty fees to do so. In addition to the product placement, Samsung is doing good for others by donating $3 million to Ellen’s favorite charities.
While Samsung got great product placement during the awards, I wonder if it actually works. While watching the Oscars, all I noticed about the phone she was using was that it was not an iPhone. While in most television shows they do a close up on the product, the phone was never shown close up. If Samsung had never made a statement about the issue, would people have noticed that was the phone being used in the show? This is not a question anyone can answer since they have made a statement, but by using the free product placement, they have made themselves known as Ellen’s phone company. This in itself will probably influence some of her fans to purchase Samsung phones in the hopes they to will one day get in to the famous selfie.
References
Cooper, Gael Fashingbauer. (2014 March 4). Ellen’s Oscar selfie earns $3 million for charities. Today. Retrieved from: http://www.today.com/entertainment/ellens-oscar-selfie-earns-3-million-charities-2D79317922
Loyola Digital Advertising [로욜라 디지털 광고] 
I can see why this selfie was the most tweeted. Not only did it include some of our favorite actors and actresses, but it was a goofy photo that makes you smile when you first lay eyes on it. Props to Ellen and the producers for choosing to use the Samsung phone during the Oscars. How are we sure that it was her personal choice and that Samsung did not pay her to use it? Regardless, nice work on product placement. This is one of the most viewed awards shows, so getting this brand in the right place at the right time with the right people is great for them and their sales.
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I LOVE THIS SELFIE. Ellen did a great job hosting the Oscars and she was very entertaining. If I remember, I think someone mentioned right before she took the selfie that the phone she was using was a Samsung. That was a great example of the Samsung using the Ellen and the Oscars to get their product out there.
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This is awesome, haha!! And while Samsung did not sponsor Ellen (do we believe this statement?), they got a lot of good PR attention. I think that it’s a win-win for Ellen, her charity, and for Samsung. Will be interesting to read how Twitter responded to this… I will have to check that out… 🙂
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I think this a really good concept and I bet there will be a commercial for Samsung along these lines. Maybe they can get celebrity endorsement and make a campaign out of it.
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