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Derek Zoolander ditched his tiny flip phone for a giant Samsung

Derek Zoolander ditched his tiny flip phone for a giant Samsung

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The selfies are in the phone?

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A new Zoolander 2 poster is out today and Hollywood's resident technology supplier, Samsung, has found a way to sneak its logo in under the radar. The image features Derek Zoolander, played by writer and director Ben Stiller, and Hansel McDonald (Owen Wilson) giving the front-facing camera of a Galaxy S6 their best Blue Steel.

It’s not surprising to see the two models remaining as self-obsessed as ever, but there is one big difference here.The last time we saw Zoolander pull out a cellphone, it was a the size of a matchbox — practically a phone for ants. Clearly, a lot has changed in the decade-plus since the original film, mainly our propensity for ever-larger screens courtesy of a certain South Korean smartphone maker.

The Samsung logo is quite discreet in the image, so it's too early to tell if the company inked a product placement deal for every bit of technology in the film. But Samsung isn't a stranger to high-profile Hollywood placement deals. The company famously got Ellen DeGeneres to take an Oscar selfie with a Galaxy Note 3 and tweet it out, ultimately making the image the most retweeted tweet in the history of Twitter. It also designs futuristic displays for Marvel to feature in its Avengers films.

Selfies are so hot right now

This year, the company injected itself heavily in Jurassic World through Samsung-branded products and the infamous "Samsung Innovation Center." The in-film education exhibit marked some kind of meta product placement that branded a fictitious location in the dinosaur theme park in a way that Disney or Universal Studios might reasonably do in reality. Samsung may not get as ambitious in Stiller's fashion parody sequel, at least not when it can generate as much buzz by putting a selfie taking machine in the hands of Derek Zoolander.