Ellen Feiss: Not a 'Real Person' After All?


Apple's most famous 'Switcher,' Ellen Feiss, has given her long-awaited first interview - to the Brown Daily Herald.

Feiss, whose popularity has spawned a lookalike contest, as well as a slew of websites, including EllenFeiss.net, has been coy about fame, eschewing interviews with the big guns of the late-night talk circuit, Leno and Letterman. But she has an agent just the same.

In the interview, Feiss reveals she got the Apple ad through her friendship with the son of the ad's director, although she claims ignorance of the terms of the deal. She does own up to getting an iPod, however ("It's like the coolest thing ever.").

Fifteen-year-old Feiss also says she was close to a movie role with the Farrelly Brothers, producers of films such as There's Something About Mary. She stays away from newsgroups but was at MacWorld in July, where she was spied by a number of eagle-eyed attendees. And she met Steve Jobs [We're assuming the iCEO didn't insult her or share stoner stories]

And, yes, she says " I was on drugs!"

But there's more: "I was on Benedryl, my allergy medication...That's why my eyes were all red, because I have seasonal allergies. But no one believes me."

Analysis: Anyway, the most interesting thing to come out of this affair is the tidbit on how she got chosen for the commercial. Is Feiss a "real person?" No, she was a friend of the ad director's kid. "Hey," said the director, according to Feiss, "we need a couple more people."

Tis the road to pop culture.

The media, and users, were erroneously led to believe by Apple that the switchers were for real, people who wrote in telling their stories of why they switched to Mac. So who are the rest of the "switchers?" The creative director's stockbroker, his secretary? It's one thing to get your buddies to say something nice about you, but the premise of the Switch commercial is to show unbiased experiences switching from a PC to Mac.

Back in March, Apple solicited stories from PC switchers. Presumably, the Switch ads were the result of these submissions. Ellen's entry can be found on Apple's Web site, but this interview makes that email suspect. When was this email written, before or after she shot the commercial? Was the email just a formality? Feiss maintains her story is true, beep, beep, beep, beep and all, but the process appears to be tainted with marketing goo. Yeah, Ellen got stung by a PC and now uses a PowerBook with her sister, so she switched, at least from her dad's computer to her sister's, but is she a "real person?" Did she start using a Mac before or after the commercial?

We jumped all over Microsoft for its PR blunder, now is it Apple's turn? Is Apple like every other firm, merely hiring a bunch of actors posing as "real people" (amateur and otherwise) to push their wares? Or are we all so jaded we should expect such smoke and mirrors?

[Article Updated]