Scandinavian Model Alexandra Ansgar Promotes Firefox
Status: Hoax
LaMa gave me a heads up about a hoax circulating through the open source community. I'll let him describe it in his own words:
"How do you hoax the geeks behind the open Source movement and the ICT web press? Yep: with a hot blonde and some photoshop...
All over the geek Blogging world, posts started to appear last week that the Mozilla Foundation, the guys behind amongst others the increasingly popular Open Source webbrowser Firefox and e-mail client Thunderbird, had struck a deal with hot blonde Scandinavian photo model Alexandra Ansgar to promote their product Firefox (just Google her name and you'll get plenty of hits). The news items were accompanied by a picture where this Alexandra posed in a seductive top printed with the Firefox logo (attached).

But it was a hoax. The photo [left] is a photoshopped version of the second attached picture [right].
In fact "Scandinavian top model Alexandra Ansgar" does not exist at all. The name is made up, it is the name of a Hotel in Copenhagen. The picture of the blonde is lifted from a softporn site, www.emy18.com.
Apparently the photoshopped picture emerged on April 29th as a geeky joke, not a hoax attempt, on a Portuguese language weblog:
http://kaylee.weblog.com.pt/
From there, the picture was taken over by a few other bloggers.
It then seems that on June 11th, www.gadgetizer.com elaborated the picture into a hoax, inventing "Scandinavian model Alexandra Ansgar" and the story about the deal with the Mozilla Foundation:
http://www.gadgetizer.com/2006/06/11/new-firefox-mascot-alexandra-ansgar/
From there, it spread over the internet, the story being taken for real and cvered by a number of Geek/ICT sites (you'll find enough of them when you Google "Alexandra Ansgar").
- Marco ("LaMa")
Alexandra Ansgar kind of reminds me of the Dusty girl.
Posted By: Alex | Date:
Fri Jun 16, 2006 |
Permalink |
Total Comments: 11
Category:
Technology
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
Page 1 of 1 pages
Yeah, the Dusty Girl. I had the same thought association.
And I bet you this pctuure now is the wallpaper of many a (male) Firefox fan out there...
And I admitt: I brought the story under Alex's attention just to have some eye candy on the site again....

Posted by LaMa in Europe on Fri Jun 16, 2006 at 07:48 AM
No matter what you're looking for you can find it on a portugese weblog. It's strange, but true.
Posted by Dracul on Fri Jun 16, 2006 at 11:28 AM
Thanks Alex & LaMa

Posted by oppiejoe in Michigan - USA on Fri Jun 16, 2006 at 01:30 PM
Hey, I miss the Dusty girls! Guess the contract expired. My desktop pic is from there - it's the girl behind bars. Well,ahem,that's Susie, my 'Prison B---h', and her t-shirt reads "Surrender Your Booty!" I just couldn't resist that. Too bad I didn't order a t-shirt, or most other readers, here, or maybe we would still have the Dusty site up. C'mon, Alex; Could 'ya give 'em another shot?
Posted by stork in the spiracles of space on Fri Jun 16, 2006 at 10:15 PM
Posted by Captain Al in Alberta, Canada on Fri Jun 16, 2006 at 11:56 PM
Posted by Tiago in Portugal on Sat Jun 17, 2006 at 04:35 PM
Photoshopped!?! Smart money sez that any hardcore firefox fan would use the gimp!
Posted by rkh in elsewhere on Sun Jun 18, 2006 at 08:31 PM
"... Alexandra Ansgar kind of reminds me of the Dusty girl."
That's probably because neither of 'em know their own shirt sizes.
Posted by Big Gary in Medicine Mounds, Texas on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 02:17 PM
Nice and sexy chick...
Posted by iCalvyn in Penang, Malaysia on Fri Jul 13, 2007 at 09:23 AM
Who cares if it's a Photoshop Phake? She's hot!
Posted by GeorgeC in Ohio on Mon Nov 12, 2007 at 07:32 PM
Hi Guys,
Ogling is good for the heart and Eyes.- just what the doctor ordered!
Posted by Ian George in Georgetown ,Penang on Sat Nov 07, 2009 at 08:39 PM
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