June 9, 2002: Apple launches its “Switch” advertising campaign, featuring real people talking about their reasons for switching from PCs to Macs. Apple’s biggest marketing effort since the “Think different” ad campaign a few years earlier, one “Switch” ad in particular turns a 15-year-old high school student named Ellen Feiss into an unlikely star.
She becomes a viral sensation after viewers suggest she was stoned while filming her sleepy-eyed “Switch” spot about a homework-devouring PC.
Apple’s ‘Switch’ ads focus on real people
Over the years, Apple released some truly remarkable advertising, from Ridley Scott’s brilliant “1984” ad for the original Mac to the aforementioned “Think different” spots. Others bombed, like the grim “1984” follow-up “Lemmings” and the 2024 “Crush” ad for the M4 iPad Pro. (Apple actually apologized for that one.)
Apple’s “Switch” ad campaign was designed to entice people to switch from Windows to Mac, and it came at a key time for Cupertino. Microsoft hit its financial peak a couple of years earlier, before beginning a multiyear decline.
Apple, on the other hand, was enjoying a post-iPod period of sustained success. Suddenly, more people than ever seemed willing to try out Apple’s computers for the first time. This coincided with the Digital Hub strategy that Apple CEO Steve Jobs laid out in January 2001. The strategy targeted the “other 95%” of computer users who did not yet own a Mac.
Ads feature real ‘switchers’ who went from PC to Mac
Using regular people in its “Switch” campaign was new for Apple. During the 1990s, most of its big ads focused on celebrity users of Apple products. Jobs enjoyed appealing to the aspirational demographic with this type of marketing. But “Switch” established a formula that Apple continues to build upon. Recent efforts include its well-received “Shot on iPhone” ads.
Unlike the iconic “Think different” ads, Apple’s “Switch” campaign didn’t so much focus on the rebels, troublemakers and misfits as it did on … well, regular folks. Simply shot, they placed switchers in front of a white background, and had them speak directly into the camera.
“These are not actors — they’re real people who have switched from PCs to Macs, telling their story in their own words,” said Jobs in a press release at the time. (The PR referred to Apple’s “Switch” ads as the “Real People” campaign.) “More people are interested in switching from PCs to Macs than ever before, and we hope that hearing these successful switchers tell their story will help others make the jump.”
Ellen Feiss: ‘Smoke different’ follows her bleary-eyed ‘Switch’ ad for Apple
For the campaign, Apple brought in Errol Morris, a highly regarded documentary filmmaker known for having interview subjects look directly into the camera lens when speaking. He employed this technique for the “Switch” campaign to make the ads feel more personal and authentic. As a result, the ads seemed like you were engaging in a real conversation with a person about their reason for jumping to Mac.
Morris filmed several “Switch” ads, including another one featuring Feiss in which she professed her love for her Power Mac G4. That one never aired. (If you’ve never seen Morris’ classic blue-collar ads for Miller High Life beer, do yourself a favor and watch a few.)
Apple advertising makes a lasting impact
Later ads in Apple’s “Switch” series included celebrities as well as regular folks (including one in which actor Will Ferrell portrayed a drunken Santa Claus). However, none made an impact quite like Ellen Feiss, who was a friend of Morris’ son, Hamilton Morris. In the ad, she tells a story of how her dad’s PC ate her homework.
Due to her demeanor, Feiss became an internet celebrity. One enterprising individual started selling unofficial “Smoke Different” T-shirts. Feiss also got invited to be interviewed on TV by David Letterman and Jay Leno, while MTV talked about doing a pilot show. The Farrelly brothers — of There’s Something About Mary fame — even considered offering her a part in one of their movies. Feiss turned down pretty much everything.
Apple reportedly wasn’t thrilled about the drug rumors surrounding Feiss’ “Switch” ad. Feiss denied smoking pot in the one interview she did with a college paper. However, she did admit to being under the influence of something — and “looking pretty out of it.”
“I think I look horrible,” she told The Brown Daily Herald. “It was after school, but I was the last person to make the commercial, so by the time I made it it was like 10, so I was really tired. The funny thing was, I was on drugs! I was on Benedryl [sic], my allergy medication, so I was really out of it anyway. That’s why my eyes were all red, because I have seasonal allergies. But no one believes me.”
You can watch a selection of Apple’s “Switch” ads in the video compilation below:
Switcher Ellen Feiss on internet fame
Five years later, after starring in indie short film Bed & Breakfast, Feiss told Macenstein that “being ‘famous’ in high school isn’t fun” and spoke of feeling “relatively powerless” after Apple’s “Switch” ads went viral.
“I got bitter pretty quickly,” she said of her Apple-fueled fame. “For some reason people lose their sense of what’s appropriate social conduct when you have any kind of celebrity persona. People would come up to me and say really rude things.”
In the end, though, Feiss said most of her fans “turned out to be nice, intelligent Mac using people.” And despite some of the negative aspects of internet fame, she said she’d do it all over again.
