Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear."Has President Obama signed $30m endorsement deal?" asks Emirates Business 24/7.
This is the shocking - SHOCKING - story of Obama's new megabucks deal with the maker of BlackBerry phones, which saw him making blatant promotion pitches throughout his campaign, even exhorting kids to "ask mum and dad for a Blackberry!"
Er. No.
A quick - c. 30 second - Google News search revealed the source for this story as spoof-news-site Unconfirmed Resources. A swift glance at the site's jokey piece reveals that, yes, EVERY SINGLE QUOTE from the Business 24/7 story is from the satire, including a quote just inches above the disclaimer: "Unconfirmed Sources political satire and news story parodies as represented above are written as satire or parody. They are, of course, fictitious."
Unfortunately, you'd never know it from the story Our Beloved Paper carried, which appears to have quite obliviously taken it as fact, despite citing "Unconfirmed resources" as a vague source for the details.
Oh dear. Sometimes we think Dubai Media Observer might have a point...
In other news, the shocking - SHOCKING - story of how US prison inmates are complaining about boredom! How dare they. HOW. DARE THEY.
UPDATE: EB24/7 has sadly removed the story from the site now (thanks for the tip, anonymous poster) - but the whole piece is now in the comments below...
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Oh dear, oh dear...
ReplyDeleteStory's been taken off the EB24/7 site...
ReplyDeleteFigures. Lucky I saved a copy, really...
ReplyDeleteHas President Obama signed $30m endorsement deal?
By Vigyan Arya on Sunday, February 01, 2009
US President Barack Obama seems to be very marketing savvy and is rumoured to have made an endorsement deal worth millions of dollars even before he was sworn on the coveted seat.
Unconfirmed resources reveal President Obama allegedly signed a $30 million (Dh110m) advertising deal with smartphone maker Blackberry. Rumour has it that president Obama secretly signed a $30m advertising promotion with the mobile phone maker during his campaign to become the President. Though he has not admitted so publicly, Obama's words and actions seem to verify the claim.
"I love my Blackberry. I never leave home without it," Obama told a reporter. "I encourage every American to buy a Blackberry. And you can buy one now for only $99.99 with a two-year activation plan from Sprint."
In a direct sales pitch by the then aspiring president, Obama seem to have told the media several times and at different places during his entire campaign to purchase Blackberry products and even offered a 20-per cent discount to anyone who said "Obama sent me" to their salesperson.
President Obama has categorically denied of any contractual arrangement with Blackberry, but has also supported the idea suggesting that it would be OK if he did have one.
"I don't have a contract with Blackberry but if I did, so what?" Obama asked. "Basketball players sell deodorant and there's no conflict of interest."
Competition is not taking lightly to the matter and proposing to pay the newly-elected president financial package just to stop him from broadcasting his passion for the Blackberry.
"We don't want him to even sell our product. We just want him to shut up," said John Sculley, CEO of Apple, makers of the Blackberry competitor iPhone who have conveyed in informal communiques that they would pay Obama $40m if he just shuts up about the Blackberry.
Sales of Blackberry phones and Blackberry products have skyrocketed since Obama became President.
Obama ended a recent speech by raising his Blackberry toward the cameras saying, "kids, ask mum and dad for a Blackberry!"
google has a cache of the story as it appeared on the site
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