Being a cold-blooded American (by acquisition, not by birth), I choose to deny the existence of ketchup brands outside of Heinz and Hunt’s. So when I hear that an international brand exists by the name of “Felix,” ostensibly named after the animated cat with a magic bag of tricks (or so I like to think), I pretend it only exists in the minds of silly foreigners who dream that they can compete with U.S. dominance over sweetened tomato flavorings.
For a moment, I will play along and buy into the fact that Felix is celebrating its 50th anniversary. To celebrate, Helsinki-based agency Hasan & Partners have (allegedly) commissioned pop artist Nathan Wyburn to create portraits of ketchup consumers using Felix in place of paint. As you can see in the above clip, Wyburn deftly exhibits his ability for turning a young woman’s photo into an accurate ketchup-y facsimile. (Minus the nose. Don’t know what happened to Wyburn there, but I guess once it got a little smudged, there was no turning back.)
For one week starting today, fans are asked to submit their photo on Felix Finland’s Facebook page with the opportunity for Wyburn to give them the ketchup treatment. Facebook fans can also watch Wyburn create do his thing in real time, praying that he doesn’t do to their nose what he did to the girl’s in the video.