Any Friend's addicts...come this way as I noticed something whilst watching an episode and am wondering if it is a coincidence or a subtle reference...

[Theromanempire]

Am a total Friends addict and have never noticed this before. In the episode where Joey and Ben are auditioning for a soup commercial (mmm noodle soup ), at the end, Joey is talking to Ben about how awful life is being an actor and he says something along the lines of 'one day, you are Dr Drake Ramorey and then the next, you are eating ketchup straight out of the bottle'.

It just occurred to me that prior to Friends, Matt le Blanc was most famous for the Heinz ketchup commercial where he (kind of) eats ketchup out of the bottle.

Do you think this line was a subtle reference to this or just a coincidence?

Haha I had never noticed that definitely done on purpose.
Definitely an addict

What bugs me more about that episode is that the commercial was to go to either Joey and Raymond or Ben and his partner but in the end neither Ben nor Joey got the part

I think it was referencing that, definitely. Friends was good at those little subtle things you wouldn't always catch if you weren't an avid watcher.