Kim Kardarshian’s numerous public displays of affection for Blackberry wasn't enough for the Canadian cell phone firm to consider the reality TV star as its brand ambassador, as the company announced it doesn’t want anything to do with her.
Speaking at the APEC summit in China the summit, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said that he has no interest in hiring the reality TV star as a company spokeswoman, even with her genuine love for their product.
Chen said his decision has nothing to do with Kardashian as a person, but rather the direction the company is taking. He added that she is not an ideal fit for the brand.
“I’m not into bringing celebrities on board,” Chen said. “It’s not that it’s a waste of money but a question of where you should spend the money today” he said to The Business Insider.
He said that BlackBerry has pulled back from the consumer market and shifted focus to security, encryption and privacy for government and business clients, areas in which Kardashian’s brand wouldn’t resonate all that well.
Chen's reluctance to use celebrities may also stem from an incident which occurred when the company appointed Alicia Keys as it's global creative director. A few months after the appointment, a tweet sent out from Keys' Twitter account indicated she had used an iPhone to send the tweet. She later denied this, saying her account was hacked.
Kardashian gave the Canadian company some free publicity last month when she said in an interview that she buys BlackBerry devices on eBay whenever she can because she is “afraid they will go extinct”.
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