Republican Strategist Is Taking Heat for Taking Mexico as Client

Republican Strategist Is Taking Heat for Taking Mexico as Client

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: December 28, 2005
DALLAS, Dec. 26 - Rob Allyn, the political consultant, meet Rob Allyn, the punching bag.


Jerry Hoefer
for The New York Times

Rob Allyn says he will try to
educate people about the
economic importance of
Mexico to the United
States.


Jerry Hoefer for The New York Times
Rob Allyn's office is in downtown Dallas, whose skyline, he says, "was built largely by Mexican immigrants."

A longtime Republican strategist, Mr. Allyn has found himself in the cross hairs of conservative critics in the last week after signing a contract with Mexico's foreign ministry to lead a campaign to strengthen the country's image in the United States.

A CNN anchor asked Mr. Allyn whether Mexico was "dabbling in U.S. policy" by hiring him as a marketer. Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, describing Mexico as a "corrupt, chaotic country" with 40 percent unemployment (it is closer to 4 percent) told him in another interview that he had his work cut out for him.

Then protesters here in Dallas, where Mr. Allyn lives, held a news conference in front of the Mexican Consulate to assert that Mexico's government would have done better by hiring a Mexican-American firm. Allyn & Company is a unit of Fleishmann-Hillard, the public relations concern, itself part of the Omnicom Group, the international marketing company.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/28/business/media/28adco.html
(Free registration required)