What do rain ponchos, electric razors, Swedish cologne and Uruguayan face paint all have in common? BJ Novak is unwittingly the face of all these products and more.
The actor and writer, best known for his role on The Office, took to Instagram to share the bizarre yet objectively hilarious predicament that had actually only recently come to his attention. Novak explained that the reason why his casual smirking face is plastered all over a random assortment of items was the result of someone mistakenly uploading a photo of him to a public domain site.
B.J. Novak\u2019s attitude is a lesson for us allpic.twitter.com/5pBGWMpsQj— Portmanto\u2019lantern\ud83c\udf83\ud83d\ude08\ud83d\ude40\ud83d\ude37\ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89 (@Portmanto\u2019lantern\ud83c\udf83\ud83d\ude08\ud83d\ude40\ud83d\ude37\ud83d\udc89\ud83d\udc89) 1635361184
Dying @ Bj Novak\u2019s IG stories today pic.twitter.com/8Xyc3tF0OL— bibi (@bibi) 1635205510
Life imitates artpic.twitter.com/Ld2P7hmhxN— Spencer Chorney (@Spencer Chorney) 1635203128
Theoretically, Novak could take legal action over the unauthorized use of his likeness if he wanted to but the actor has said that he has no intention of doing so. "I am too amused to do anything about it."
If Novak ever did decide wanted to put an end to it, he would at least have a legal course of action according to attorney Marc Misthal. Even though the photo of Novak can be used free of charge since it is in the public domain, Novak would be able to send cease-and-desist letters to any company that used his likeness. "It's really the fact that his face or likeness is associated with a particular product, because they're using his likeness in order to attract customers and basically make money," Misthal tells the New York Times.
Novak isn't the only one that knows what it's like to have their own visage unexpectedly come back to haunt them. Both John Boyega and Simu Liu have had stock photo shoots from before they were famous come back to haunt them, however, unlike Novak, both were paid for the shoots so even if they wanted to send out cease-and-desists they couldn't.
Yep. Used the money for new trainershttps://twitter.com/sherrifflucy/status/685432759863668737\u00a0\u2026— John Boyega (@John Boyega) 1452255101
That stock photo shoot always finds a way to come back and haunt me LOL— Simu Liu (\u5218\u601d\u6155) (@Simu Liu (\u5218\u601d\u6155)) 1537913189
Photo via Getty/ Matt Winkelmeyer/ VF20/ WireImage
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