Bizarre reason The Office star's face is on products across the world without his permission

In a bizarre move that sounds like a skit from The Office itself, people have recently rediscovered the hilarious reason one star of the show’s face is on products across the world.

Whilst BJ Novak, the actor who plays Ryan in The Office, may not be coming back for new spin-off The Paper, people across the world may recognise him as the face of various products and companies.

The spin-off The Paper did however feature the return of Oscar Nunez, reprising his role as Oscar Martinez as one of the biggest links to the original American version of The Office.

The Paper was commissioned shortly after The Office became the most popular sitcom in the world in 2020.

This came as it was added to Netflix and saw a massive second surge in popularity that Brian Baumgartner said changed his life and felt as if he was more famous than he was when the show originally aired.

Whilst many acknowledged the spin-off had growing pains as it tried to find its identity, The Paper was mostly well received, sitting at 7.1 on IMDb and 85% on Rotten Tomatoes with a second season already greenlit.

BJ Novak appears on packaging across the world (BJ Novak / Instagram)

BJ Novak did not appear, despite being one of the few characters with an open enough ending in The Office that it may have been possible to write a small role for Ryan into the TV show.

The actor may be far more familiar to those across the world unfamiliar with The Office, however, as the face on the packaging for their cologne, face paint, or even raincoats.

The actor took to Instagram in 2021 where he shared photos of himself modelling for various products.

He posted about this, saying: “Years ago, someone mistakenly put an image of me on a public domain site, and now apparently I am on products all around the world, but I am too amused to do anything about it.”

BJ Novak spoke about how this was due to someone posting a picture of him on a public domain site (BJ Novak / Instagram)

These include a cologne in Sweden, a face paint in Uruguay, and an electric razor in China.

Interest in this bizarre phenomenon was raised again recently after a post about it by the Instagram page ‘2000sAnxiety’ went viral.

One comment said: “This is the most The Office kind of thing that could happen to him.”

Another pointed out that it was hilarious ‘payback’ after his character used the faces of Phyllis Vance and Oscar Martinez to sell his own products without their permission in The Office.

Novak's Ryan did more or less the same thing in the show (NBC)

Though experts have stated that he may be able to sue the companies involved if he wanted to, the actor clearly has little interest in doing this.

Thankfully, the actor sees the funny side.

Novak has posted about this as far back as 2014 when he discovered his face had appeared as the model for Calvin Klein’s ‘Encounter’ fragrance, saying: “I am #blessed to announce the launch of my fragrance, available now in a Swedish department store.”