S. Samuel
Smartphone maker BlackBerry has come forward to address new reports claiming Young Money superstar Drake has been tagged to possibly become its brand ambassador. #NotSoFast
Despite the growing buzz, BB has denied reaching out to the hip-hop star.
BlackBerry is denying a report at TechCrunch that rapper and Toronto native Drake is in talks to be the company’s official spokesperson for the BlackBerry Classic — a new phone, to be launched in November, that brings back BlackBerry’s much-loved physical trackpad. But the company told MobileSyrup the report is not true. “We can confirm that we are not in conversations with Drake?,” a spokesperson told the blog. (Huffington Post CA)
No stranger to celebrity endorsements, BlackBerry had previously hooked up with R&B singer Alicia Keys.
The company had tried something like this before. It brought crooner Alicia Keys on board as “global creative director” in 2013 but parted ways with the singer earlier this year. The partnership suffered from some publicity failures, such as Keys tweeting from an iPhone. (Huffington Post CA)
Rumors about the company’s interest in Drizzy surfaced online yesterday (June 19).
BlackBerry pre-announced (the announce before the real announce) a new phone today called the BlackBerry Passport that looks crazy. But they’re apparently enlisting some serious talent to help push their upcoming BlackBerry Classic, the other new smartphone the company is bringing to market later this year, with a November projected launch date: Drake is in talks with the company to help promote the Classic, according to a source familiar with BlackBerry’s plans. (Tech Crunch)
Details of what Drizzy’s alleged involvement would have included also bubbled online.
Our source adds that Drake’s promotion will include the claim that he was involved in the design process of the new smartphone, which again isn’t as far-fetched as you might think – the rapper has apparently resisted the urge to upgrade to BB10 because no device that runs that OS has a physical trackpad, which is among his favorite features of the 9900. If true, Drake’s taste is shared by a lot of C-level executives I’ve talked to, who lament the removal of the function keys as well as the trackpad on the Q10. (Tech Crunch)
