Robin Dhondt
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Hero

The woman who taught me flaws sell better than strengths.

From the desk of Robin Dhondt

Robin in his green jacket presenting the Avis ad We try harder on the big screen in the barn at Boereau, in front of a full room

Meet Paula Green.

In 1962, she was one of the first female copywriters on Madison Avenue.

Her client, Avis, was second place in car rentals, far behind car rental giant Hertz.

And that second place was killing them.

Until Paula did something unthinkable. She wrote the truth.

“We're only number two. So we try harder.”

A line that changed advertising forever.

Because for the first time, a major brand admitted a flaw and made it the reason to choose them.

Paula Green invented Flawesome in a world full of men who expected her to write another lie.

She died in 2015 at the age of 88. It's an honor to have part of her legacy in my keynote and message.

She's the first of a series of heroes I'll share here: people who were Totally Flawesome and didn't even know it.

Gold or garbage?
You decide.

Every post here is a draft. Tell me what's worth keeping and what belongs in the trashcan. I can take it. (Mostly.)

More from the desk

Robin's email signature with the Totally Flawesome sticker and a disclaimer about typos, a green arrow pointing at the misspelled word seriuosly
Note

My email signature confesses for me.

I'm a copywriter who still makes a lot of typos. So I stopped hiding them. Now my email signature confesses for me.

Read more →
Close-up of Robin's t-shirt: a grinning vintage salesman giving a thumbs up, with the words Hang in there, it gets worse
Note

Good news: things might get worse.

For 25 years I worked as half of a creative team. Now I no longer have a partner who tells me whether my ideas are pretty good or utterly garbage.

Read more →