Ellen’s Oscar Selfie Earns $3 Million For Charity!
Ellen DeGeneres' star-studded selfie at the Oscars didn't just break Twitter, it also earned $3 million for charity thanks to the record-breaking re-tweets the post received during the broadcast!
While the Oscar host reached her goal of getting the most re-tweets in the history of Twitter, the company that helped her get there is making a contribution of its own.
Samsung served as a sponsor for this year's Academy Awards and received some pretty great publicity when DeGeneres pulled out her Samsung phone to take the now-infamous selfie.
"In honor of this epic moment and of course, the incredible response of nearly 3 million retweets, we wanted to make a donation to Ellen's charities of choice: St. Jude (Children's Research Hospital) and the Humane Society (of the United States)," the company said in a statement. "Samsung will donate $1.5 million to each charity."
DeGeneres' A-list photo beat President Obama's former record for most re-tweets, which was 780,000 for the below picture, posted in November 2012.
Four more years. pic.twitter.com/bAJE6Vom
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012
And the picture has already become an important part of pop culture history, even receiving a makeover of sorts from The Simpsons!
The ugly true story of that Oscar® selfie can finally be told! Let's break Twitter again. Look for Bart. pic.twitter.com/tdfr3Juhff
— Homer J. Simpson (@HomerJSimpson) March 5, 2014