Last weekend 250 Mac "Freaks" in Holland got together in a small town outside Amsterdam.
The event allowed members of the MacFreak online community, a Dutch Mac-oriented website and forum about 2,000 strong, to get together and socialize.
To pass the time, they amused themselves by tossing Windows PCs, making Mac porn and holding a look-alike competition to find the best Ellen Feiss, the teenage star of one of Apple's new Switch commercials.
The resemblances, as you can see, are striking.
"Of course, no one was capable of catching that adorable look of the real Ellen," the site admits. "She's our adolescent Mona Lisa. Every look-alike is a kind of ... a bummer!"
The winner is still to be determined – online voting is still open. So far, the lead is held by the first entrant in our gallery, one of the few who are the same gender as Feiss. The second entrant in the gallery, who probably looks the most spaced-out, is the current runner-up.
"We wanted to make spoof commercials, but people are too shy in front of a video camera," explained Peter Villevoye, who helps run MacFreak. "So we thought it would be fun to have an Ellen Feiss look-alike competition instead. A lot of people really got into the spirit of it."
Ellen Feiss is part of Apple's Switch campaign, which features testimonials from dozens of real people explaining why they switched from a Windows PC to the Mac.
The high-profile campaign is already being imitated, from Microsoft's unsuccessful attempt to portray a Mac-to-PC switcher, to a gubernatorial primary in Baltimore.
Feiss has emerged as the star of the pack. Although little is known about her – Apple isn't saying anything – she has become a minor Net celebrity, the subject of fan sites, icons, desktop wallpaper and merchandise like T-shirts and Frisbees bearing her image.
Feiss' appeal is multifaceted: She's young, attractive and endearing. To some, though, she appears to be under the influence of a controlled substance.
"Dudes just look at the photo – she looks so baked!" someone wrote on the message board at EllenFeiss.net, one of her fan sites. "LOL. It's just too funny. I think Macs are a great fit for stoners."
After peaking last month, Feiss' celebrity status appeared to be waning, but it has renewed now that her ad is in rotation on Comedy Central and other channels catering to a younger audience.
Feiss' celebrity, in fact, seems to be growing. In addition to the Mac user base, she has been embraced by marijuana advocates.
Feiss' ad on Apple's website has now returned as the top hit on Google in response to the search item "stoned chick." Google's search algorithm ranks hits according to the number of other pages linking to it containing the search terms, among other things. Apple's page makes no mention of drugs, naturally.
According to the Rev. Samuel, who runs an online T-shirt business in upstate New York that sells a line of popular Smoke Different shirts, Apple is courting "tokers" with the ad. Feiss' ad is the only "Switch" ad from the original group still prominently displayed on Apple's site.
The Rev. Samuel said he recently attended a "hippy festival" and discovered a lot of young people are familiar with Feiss.
"Apple is very cognizant of what Ellen represents: the stoner computer market," he said. "Obviously they are courting my people: the stoners, the pot enthusiasts, munchie mavens, which is fine with me. When more advertisers do, we will be seen as respectable."
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