Carlos Alazraki

Carlos Alazraki Grossmann (born circa 1949, Mexico City) is one of the most prominent publicists of Mexico.

He is the founder, president and CEO of the award-winning Alazraki & Asociados Publicidad agency and the president of the Asociación Mexicana de Agencias de Publicidad (AMAP, Mexican Association of Publicity Agencies).. He is also the son of film director Benito Alazraki and son-in-law of the late Samy Yeroham (owner of Topeka).

He worked in the successful campaigns of Carlos Hank, Luis Donaldo Colosio, Ernesto Zedillo and Roberto Madrazo in the PRI primaries. He created the slogans Bienestar para tu familia (for Zedillo in 1994) and Dale un Madrazo al dedazo (for Madrazo in 2000).

In 2005 he joined the campaign of Madrazo for the presidential elections of 2006 at the end of the PRI primaries replacing Roberto Gaudelli.

Biography

Alazraki studied Information Science and Techniques at the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA).

He started his career in the United States with the agencies Hal Greenfader, Publicis Romero and JWT who all fired him. He then moved to Spain to work at Ibérica Televisión where he shot 13 television shows and a film with his father, Benito Alazraki.

Back in Mexico, he worked for Telesistema Mexicano (now Televisa) with Luis de Llano Sr., after a merger and Televisa was formed, all of his team but was fired except for him and Adolfo Rodríguez.

In 1970, Luis de Llano Sr. went to work with Canal 13 of Imevisión (now TV Azteca) when it was still a government-owned company. Alazraki joined him as director of programming. He was fired two years later for punching someone who insulted de Llano in a meeting.

During that time, his father-in-law had asked Alazraki for a publicity agency that would create an ad-campaign for a line of pants. Alazraki told his father that he owned one, and called Adolfo Rodríguez for assistance and "Alazraki-Rodríguez Publicidad" was born. The agency would later become Alazraki & Asociados Publicidad.

In 2003 he managed the public image of the PRI and in the elections of that year, that party dominated Congress. In 2005 he replaced Roberto Gaudelli managing the image of Roberto Madrazo for the 2006 presidential elections. Since then the image of Madrazo has improved amidst political scandals such as the "desafuero" and the "videoscandals" that have damaged the image of the National Action Party and the Party of the Democratic Revolution respectively.

In addition to managing the image of Madrazo, the Alazraki agency has managed the image of Sanborns for 15 years, Telmex and Sección Amarilla ("Yellow Pages" in Mexico) for 12 years, Posadas and Victoria beer for eight years and Comex for ten years. Alazraki is working on television projects for "Canal 40". In 1996 he produced the film, "Directamente al cielo" ("Straight to heaven").

He has also been the judge for the FIAP Buenos Aires (1991) and The New York Festival (1995, also an advisor).

He has been a member of the Advertising Hall of Fame since 1991 and in 2003 he was named one of the 300 most influentian leaders in Mexico.

Films

* "Directamente al cielo" (1996) producer

Sources

* [http://www.alazraki.com.mx/alazraki/english/home_e.htm Alazraki & Asociados Publicidad]
* [http://www.ciadvertising.org/sa/spring_04/adv382j/karla/teorias2/Made%20in%20Mexico.htm Profile] at at the Center of Interactive Advertising of the University of Texas at Austin
* [http://www.canal100.com.mx/telemundo/entrevistas/?id_nota=4358 Interview] on Revista Telemundo
* [http://www.amap.com.mx/ AMAP site]
* [http://www.lideresmexicanos.com/articulos.php?id_sec=4&id_art=134&id_ejemplar=0 300 most influential leaders in Mexico]
* [http://www.palabrajoven.com/pj/noticias/?n=396 Open letter of Alazraki] to Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2004.
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