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Enrique he never took auditions too seriously. For him they were a hobby, a way to spend the afternoon, “like an extracurricular activity,” he says. He was six years old when, in one of those auditions, they gave him a mobile and let him do it. “I imagined at that moment that I was talking to my father. I dialed his number. It was what I was most excited about at that time ”, he confesses. That child could not imagine that he had just planted the germ of one of the most iconic Christmas slogans of the 90s. Five simple words: “Hi, I’m Edu. Merry Christmas.”
23 years have passed since that famous announcement of the Airtel phone company that changed his childhood. Edu is actually called Enrique Espinosa and now he is 31 years old. Lives in Barcelona he has always owned a digital marketing company and shares his life with a beautiful woman named Ariadne, also present in this interview with EL ESPAÑOL.
The talk takes place in a local Barcelona’s Raval of which they are parishioners. Enrique, despite the years and the continuous memories, has no problem talking about Edu, his other alter ego. Of course, he does not deny the greatest: he is not a Christmas person. Who was going to say it about Edu?
Hi, I’m Edu, Merry Christmas: Airtel campaign
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“It all started when I was five years old and I saw a program on Catalan television in which there was a sign like: ‘Do you want your son to come to the show?’ I used to see him at home and I told my mother that I wanted to go. I wanted to be with the children and talk, because I have always liked giving my opinion a lot. Not because of a television issue or being famous. It’s not that my parents encouraged me or were in favor, I decided it, ”Enrique explains.
That led to a peculiar television career. “I went to the program, I was very funny there and they told us that there was an agency, that I could be used for publicity. My mother thought: ‘If the boy likes it, then let’s do it.’ I went to castings and I did not care to leave or not to leave. It was like an after-school activity for me ”.
In front of the mothers who took that as a Little miss sunshine, who made their children look handsome and combed their hair minutes before entering the audition, for Enrique it was just another game. Maybe it was the key to his success, who knows. The naturalness and self-confidence of the little boy dazzled those responsible. “I was in a lot of commercials. I did for Central Lechera Asturiana, for Chupa-Chups … But in most of the ‘spots’ nobody recognizes the actor ”. His mother was always with him. His father, on the other hand, was absent. He traveled a lot for work and young Enrique missed him. “I did not see it,” he laments.
He was late for the Airtel test. “We join the last. My mother says to me: ‘Hey, do you want to go?’ I told him no, my friends were there. In the end you coincide with the same children, because in all the ‘castings’ they look for the same profiles ”. Enrique was one step away from becoming the most famous child of Christmas 1998.
Enrique poses for EL ESPAÑOL 23 years later.
THE SPANISH
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Natural
When he entered the room, they simply gave him a phone. I was just used to talking to my father on the phone. I dialed his number. It was what I was most excited about at that time ”, he explains. “At one point, the person in charge of the ‘casting’ asks if the phone has a line. Because I was interrupted, I spoke, I was silent … You know? But the phone was off. “
A few days later they called him to give him the good news. For him, this ad was like any other, he didn’t see anything special about it. It was difficult to imagine that that phrase would sink so much and he was to haunt all the Edus of Spain for years to come. “I remember that we repeated the phrase a thousand times.”
And he hit the bombshell. Why? Because whoever was in charge of designing the ad did it very well. It is very difficult to create a phrase that fits. He did it at the right time and appeared at all times on all channels ”. The most famous advertisement for the sofa was followed by two others with the same slogan. It happened like Bart, the character of The Simpson, with its famous “it was not me”. It was a time before social networks, when only viruses were viral. His father, absent on one of his trips, was oblivious to Edu’s bombing, but “he arrived in Spain and he began to find signs with my face.”
The famous phrase will now haunt Enrique all his life. There are those who call him Edu unconsciously, even. But as a young man it earned him numerous teases at school – we remember the boy from Ausonia’s ‘fiesshhta’ – who made Enrique have a hard time.
Enrique talks on his mobile during his conversation with this newspaper.
THE SPANISH
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“It was tough with the teammates. I haven’t been beaten, I have to say that. I have neither been recorded nor harassed on the internet. That really must be screwed up, ”he says. “Did I suffer? Yes. Do I have to live with that suffering? No. I tell it because it is an experience that I have to tell and that helps me to naturalize it ”.
– Is there someone who keeps calling you Edu in an affectionate way?
-Yeah right. And there are people who find out that I made the announcement and suddenly it crashes and only tells me Edu. If you tell me Edu I turn because I understand it as a middle name. What’s more, I wear it with pride.
“In the company, sometimes, the new ones call him Edu”, adds Ariadna in her first intervention in the conversation.
-It bothered me at one time but it doesn’t bother me anymore. -Continues Enrique- It is a difficult experience to replicate. I am very grateful to have had that opportunity. Now nobody recognizes me and I can be calm.
Years later, he returned to incarnate his most famous character, his middle name, in an announcement of Volkswagen.
Hi, I’m Edu, Merry Christmas (Volkswagen Christmas ad in 2018)
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Enrique was unable to pursue a university degree. “In my house there was a lack of money. I went directly to the professional part. My father fell ill with the heart, he could not do anything. Pensions, unfortunately, are what they are. So I got to work very early. I did training courses and masters that did not require a degree ”.
Despite not having gone through a college, his determination and desire to learn have earned him a successful professional career. He went through numerous companies before founding his own. The most notable was Repair your debt. “It was the one that taught me the most to scale a business. When I entered there were very few of us and now there are many. I talk a lot with the director and she tells me how well she is doing ”.
Enrique speaks on the phone before attending this newspaper.
Manu Mart
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Nowadays, Enrique runs his own company -which he prefers not to appear in this text, curiously-, dedicated to digital marketing and SEO positioning. 21st century services, you know. It has 20 employees and a good portfolio of clients. He is the sole shareholder of it. This combines it with occasional appearances on television. “They called me from We open the thread to talk about Christmas, about whether I’m Christmas and stuff. “
-Are you Christmas?
-No.
-Why?
-Because I like to share the moments with the people I love, regardless of whether or not it is Christmas.
His love story
At the age of 27 – four years ago today – Ariadna appeared in his life. “Her boss put me in contact with her to set up a congress. I was in charge of the marketing and she was in charge of the organization. At an e-mail crossing, she sent me one at eleven thirty at night. To see someone who takes a job so seriously and who makes him want so much … At that moment [ella] I was 20 years old. He faced his reality in a way that impressed me. I saw a lot in that attitude ”. “I called him Edu, because his contact was passed to me as Edu,” she points out.
That led to one call after another, leaving aside the organization of the event and getting into personal matters. “It was reciprocal for her to talk to me about other issues. At the end we were talking on the phone for a long time, after all the steps we had to do, until one day we decided to meet ”.
– Was it a crush?
“Telephone,” Ariadna answers, laughing.
This journalist can’t help but highlight the fact that the boy from ‘Hello, I’m Edu. Merry Christmas’ met the woman of his life by phone. If he worked in the Jaleos section, he would already have an owner.
So everything in this story has a happy ending. Enrique and Ariadna have lived together for three years and business success shines on them. He has lived the lights and shadows of fame, with the advantage that they no longer recognize him on the street. “Having lived so much fame and then stop being famous, I think it’s very positive. I believe that it has given me the opportunity to live in those two worlds ”.
Enrique leaves after talking to EL ESPAÑOL.
THE SPANISH
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