– I accidentally became a meme.

And this is that story.

My name is Andras Arato.

But people might know me as Hide the Pain Harold.

Before taking stock photos I was working

at an electric engineer.

My specialty was lighting technologies.

The stock photos began when a photographer contacted me,

when he saw my sour face on social media.

And he was saying that he was seeking a character like me.

And invited me to shoot some images.

This happened almost 10 years ago.

After the first photo shoots,

the photographer really liked the pictures.

So he invited me back several times.

I was for instance, a doctor, a university professor,

a husband, a painter, and many others.

I first realized when I had become a meme

several months after the first photo shoots.

I was curious what my pictures were used for.

So I made a reverse image search.

And I discovered myself in different advertisements

as a professor or a doctor.

But some months later, when I repeated that search

I discovered the first meme.

And that was the point when I realized

that I had became a meme.

At first, it was horrifying

when I encountered the first memes.

Because there was some really rude

or disgusting jokes with me.

So I wanted to restore all the pictures

and close down all the websites that they appeared.

But that was not a real solution.

It took several years til I could accept the situation.

But it has brought me several new opportunities.

At first, people didn’t believe

that I am a real, living person.

They thought the memes were kind of a Photoshop creation.

When embraced this, I revealed my identity

on a Russian social media site.

And after that, I can say that all the bad or rude

or disgusting memes disappeared.

At first, I did not consider myself as famous.

But later, more and more people stopped me on the street

asking for a sour face.

(upbeat music)

I do this always willingly because I see

the joy in the eyes of these people.

And it’s so good to make other people happy.

I had the opportunity to cooperate

with the biggest brands, like Coca Cola.

They invited me for a shooting

when I had to fly in a wind tunnel.

It was very, very exciting.

I enjoyed it very much.

Now there is a much bigger challenge in sight.

A comedy movie about the Hide the Pain story.

My management is planning talking

with potential investors.

Surprisingly, I got lots of messages each day

on my Facebook and Instagram channels

from people asking for help in their everyday life.

I try to show to my fans that they should be happy

even during the difficult times in their lives.

And I guess memes can help in this period

to overcome the everyday annoyances.

Even though this unexpected event happened,

I still consider myself the same old guy, Andras Arato.