Samsung Can't Have All the Fun: 5 Other Mega Brands Rocking the SelfieEllen, Big Papi and LeBron -- Samsung's all-stars -- aren't the only big names snapping promotional selfies. Tons of other brands are cashing in on selfie marketing mania, too.

ByKim Lachance Shandrow

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When you meet President Barack Obama, you kind ofhaveto snap a selfie. It's the ultimate pics-or-it-didn't-happen humblebrag. The commander in chief himself loves a good selfie. Yup, even atfunerals.

But Obama doesn't dig selfies so much when celebs stage them on behalf of big name brands ambush advertising-style, like a few doozies arranged by Samsung lately. While it looked like the POTUS was plenty happy to pose for a selfie with Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz last week, he's not so thrilled now about what turned out to be a sneaky promotional selfie that the Korean electronics giantpaidthe slugger to capture.

Commence Selfiegate. Despite being on Samsung's payroll as a social ambassador, and Samsung publiclytaking credit为他insta-viral饮剂照片在推特上,奥尔蒂斯said the historic presidential selfie he captured "wasn't anything promotional or anything like that." Sure, whatever you say, Big Papi. What you did might put anend to the presidential selfiefor good.

Related:Ellen's Oscar Selfie Quickly Becomes the Most Retweeted Image of All Time

The infamous selfie, which Ortiz of course snapped with his Samsung Galaxy Note 3, mind you, has racked up some 42,600 retweets and climbing.

Together Ortiz and Obamarose for Samsung, not too far off from how NBA star LeBron James did for his Samsung-sponsored #TogetherWeRise selfie mosaic marketing scheme, even if one of them didn't realize it at the time (the one with Secret Service protection).

Ellen DeGeneres's epic recent Oscars product placement selfie, also for Samsung, blew up so crazy big that it broke Twitter. Well, Obama dissed her selfie, too. "I thought it was cheap stunt myself," he quipped.

Love them or loathe them, promotional selfies are here to stay and brands big and small are scrambling to cash in on to the hot narcissistic global trend.

Here are five brands leveraging the wildly popular selfie phenomenon -- one self-centered, intentionally commercially #hashtagged image at a time.

1. GoPro
Billionaire CEO Nick Woodman founded GoPro on the concept of a selfie -- it's all about personal perspective. The idea for the company was born when he filmed himself surfing in Australia inside the barrel of a massive curling wave. That was 10 years ago, an entire decade before Oxford Dictionaries declared "selfie" its 2013's "Word of the Year."

Branded selfies (which often look stiff and too staged) aren't always worth a second glance, but the lion's share of GoPro's are, just by the very nature of the product and what users can achieve with it, likecorkscrewing on a rollercoasteror summiting Mount Everest and snapping astounding #GoPro-hashtaggedselfie evidenceof your ascent, for example.

Related:Famed Photographer Predicts the Death of the 'Selfie'

The San Francisco-based global manufacturer of sturdy wearable digital cameras for sports and outdoor enthusiasts is huge on promoting self-generated marketing content. Much of it is naturally from its own lineup of sports celebs on its payroll, including Olympic gold medal winnersShaun WhiteandLindsey Vonn, and15 otherpro athletes, all who regularly snap selfies of themselves with their GoPro gear.

And, of course, thousands of everyday, non-pro athlete types across the world snap and post some pretty cool GoPro selfies, even Tanzanianpelicans, too. What?!

2. Turkish Airlines
What do you get when you pit world-famous FIFA star Lionel Messi against NBA mega star Kobe Bryant in a monumental "Selfie Shootout" commercial with all the social bells and whistles, even a companion app? An insanely viral cross-platform marketing campaign that kills it on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook andTwitter(and ponies up decent interest on Pinterest, too).

Related:Apple Adds New 'Selfies' Section to App Store

Turkish Airlines did just that last December, when it reprised the two high-profile pros' roles from its "Legends on Board" TV spot for a contest that asks fans to upload their #KobivsMessi-inspired #SelfieShootout shots for a chance to win a free flight. Thousands have entered, few will win, but the real winner here is Turkish Airlines' marketing allstars.

3. Wired UK
The British version ofWiredmagazine published its first selfie cover last month, featuring a perky-eyed BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti. Now it's back on the selfie trend train once again, inviting readers to download its app and snag a free copy of its February 2014 sample edition. Once it's downloaded, they can replace Peretti's cover image with their very own selfies. Oh, and, of course, share them all over the social web ("Instagram, Twitter, Google+ or Facebook,"Wiredsuggests) with the hashtag #wiredgoesviral. The best selfies will be featured on the magazine's website. The big winner's selfie will be featured on the cover ofWiredUK'snext issue.

4. Purina Pro Plan
The famous pet food maker knows that adorable pups and Twitter pair well together. The Nestlé Purina PetCare company recently partnered with Twitter Mirror to launch a selfie competition that actually had puppies competing in the Westminster Dog show snapping selfies of themselves with an iPad set up at their level. (Wow, dogs can selfie? Well, maybe not without a little human help.)

Related:In Defense of the Selfie

Purina also launched a selfie campaign for its Beggin' Strips product with the cute hashtag #BegginSelfie, which asked pet owners to post "selfies" of their dogs to star in its recent #SelfieSunday parade on Twitter. Woof, let me take a selfie.

5. Axe
The typically hyper macho-themed Unilever men's grooming products brand apparently has a softer, more sentimental side, as evidenced by its recent mushy #KissforPeace selfie contest, which asked entrants to to post selfies of themselves smooching other people in support ofPeace One Day's worldwide efforts to promote nonviolence. And selfie smooch for their smartphones they did, in some, well, interesting ways.

The contest attempts to cleverly tie-in Axe's new "Peace"-scented line of products, which a few lucky #KissForPeace contest winners will get "an arsenal" of.

Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist atLos Angeles CityBeat,a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to theLos Angeles Times. She has also written forGovernment Technologymagazine,LA Yogamagazine, theLowell Sunnewspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at@Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebookhere.

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