actor
BJ Novak’s face appears on products all over the world – and he had no idea
Actor BJ Novak in 2018
© xD.xVanxTinex / xFuturexImage / Imago Images
Actor BJ Novak made a strange discovery: companies all over the world use his face to advertise – without his knowing about it. But Novak thinks it’s very funny.
Most people are familiar with BJ Novak’s face from the series “The Office” or the Tarantino film “Inglorious Basterds”. But the 42-year-old actor from the USA also reaches many people in a completely different way, he recently discovered: his face keeps appearing on various products.
Novak can be seen on the packaging of razors, rain anoraks or perfumes – without his consent and without his having even had any idea until recently. The products come from all over the world, from China, Uruguay, Sweden or even from Novak’s homeland, the USA. Novak has already found out how this could happen: “Years ago, someone mistakenly posted a photo of me on a public domain website,” he said in an Instagram story.
Everyone can use the picture from Novak
Works that are not protected by copyright and therefore can be freely used by anyone are referred to as “public domains”. Apparently a number of companies there used Novak’s image and gave him an unexpected career as an advertising testimonial. Except that Novak doesn’t earn a cent from it.
The actor still takes it with humor: “I’m too amused to do anything about it,” he told his Instagram followers. Some fans were immediately reminded of an episode from the series “The Office”: In it, Novak, in his role as Ryan Howard, sells homemade pesto and uses a photo of a colleague for it. Novak was also involved in the series as a screenwriter. The series “The Premise”, for which Novak wrote the script, has been on the US streaming service Hulu since mid-September.
Source: BJ Novak on Instagram