Everyone is usually in need of a little image revamp once in a while. If you’re prone to royally screwing yourself or others over, that ‘once in a while’ graduates to ‘on a regular basis’.
Whether you’ve gone full The Kraken mode in the past and destroyed everything near and dear to you, or you just want to clean up your reputation a touch, there are ways to go about it both short-term and long-term.
If you’ve painted yourself into a villainous corner, it might take a little more elbow grease but fear not, you heathen, as everyone can have a redemption arc. Most of the time.
Some of these approaches might work, some might not, but don’t blame me — I’m just the messenger lad — blame yourself.
1. Give people time
Everyone needs a cooling-off period, and trying to force yourself onto people after you screwed up can only make them think of you in a worse light.
For the OG Gossip Girl fans out there, who could forget ol’ mate Serena cheating with ol’ mate Blair’s ol’ boyfriend Nate and then just vamoosing for a year? Sure, that example is iffy at best given Blair was even more livid at Serena for bailing, but if Serena had simply explained her reasons for leaving (and then still left), Blair would’ve had time to cool off and reassess.
After people have had some time away from you, come back into their lives with a whole new outlook on life and hopefully, they’ve partially forgotten about your prior incidents.
2. Explain yourself
Occasionally, your public persona can simply be the result of a severe miscommunication.
Perhaps it’s someone not knowing you’re deaf in one ear and assuming you’re just being rude and not listening to them (hello), or people getting mad at an innocent sea creature like The Kraken simply for defending its home. Setting some time aside to have a little discussion about it can clear up misconceptions in a hot minute.
Can I see The Kraken holding a press conference apologising to humans after they kicked up a stink over a teeny, tiny boat-smashing? Not really, because frankly, it doesn’t need to defend itself over a home invasion.
Just like the real (fictitious) Kraken’s actions speak for themselves, so too does The Kraken’s new Cola & Dry (nice tie-in, well done me), so let’s just all have a drink, put all this nastiness about ‘who tried to kill who in the ocean’ behind us and move on.
3. Just do better
Nothing about your persona will improve if you’re full of empty promises and zero action. People want to see results, not flimsy apologies or defensive rebuttals.
You’re not going to turn your persona around after a few polite emails and texts, this is a long-term goal. So, every day or week, just do little things to work on yourself and people will start to notice.
4. Lower the bar and then exceed the bar
This might not be “ethical” advice, but sometimes lowering the bar for yourself, keeping the bar low for a few years and then acting how normal adults usually act can be a handy little trick.
For example, say you’ve been acting like garbage for longer than you can remember and people just think you’re a sentient dumpster. Start doing things like joining a gym, washing your sheets on a regular basis and not treating your mates poorly, and everyone will go, ‘Wow, they’ve really turned their life around!’
When in reality, you’re just doing what everyone else does but because they viewed you so poorly in the past, it will seem like you’ve genuinely turned your life around.
Loophole.
If you need further inspo to give your image a zhuzh, check out how The Kraken team handled their last PR disaster:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CPzBVm8jFA3/
Please enjoy The Kraken Black Spiced Rum responsibly, 18+ only.
