The myth of blue Monday

I see a couple of Mondays ago got a bit of an online battering.

All over social media as well. Facebook, Twitter, even LinkedIn. The first day of the week was pronounced guilty as charged without being given a chance to defend itself. Apparently the third Monday of every year is ‘officially’ when people feel the most down every year.

I know. It’s ridiculous but before I tell you why it’s ridiculous, let’s look at the evidence that the advocates of ‘Blue Monday’, as it has been labelled, have put together in an attempt to give their theory some sort of credence.

First of all, it’s very important to realise that the concept of ‘Blue Monday’ was first publicised as part of a campaign from the holiday company Sky Travel who, laughably, claimed to have calculated the date by working out and applying an education.

I guess their logic was if you attach either mathematics or science to something then, in the hearts and minds of the people the campaign is aimed at then ‘it must be true’.

Let’s forget all that because all you need to know in the here and now is that the pseudo science of ‘Blue Monday’ is nothing more than a marketing gimmick dreamt up by a holiday company desperate to create a hook that would sell their product.

There was some logic to their so-called findings. After all, the third Monday of January comes at a time when, even for the most enthusiastic party goer and bon vivant, the holiday season is well and truly over. The decorations are down, the celebrations forgotten and the artificially charged bonhomie of the end of year festivities has disappeared.

Meanwhile, the weather isn’t great, the post-Christmas credit card bills have arrived and either you or someone close to you has the mother of all colds with added cough, sniffles and snot.

And there’s not really anything to look forward to until Easter.

All of this resonated with Sky Travel. People are feeling vulnerable they said, they’re cold, fed up and miserable. What they need is a couple of weeks in the sun and a chance to escape all of the gloom and misery back home.

Except that, of course, it’s not so easy to flog an expensive foreign holiday to someone whose just spent a fortune over Christmas and is, no doubt, now wondering, how they’re going to pay their January bills as a result of their festive exuberance.

The financial services consultancy KPMG have estimated that struggling to deal with debts and loans will be the biggest expenditure for 14% of the UK’s adult population this January and if you think that 14% “doesn’t sound too bad” then consider this; if the adult population of the UK is reckoned to be between 40 and 45 million people (ie) those of working age, then that means that between 5,600,000 and 6,300,00 of them will be experiencing some sort of financial difficulty at some point this month.

A substantial proportion of whom might, just might, look at the so-called science behind ‘Blue Monday’ and believe that it is credible, believable and a reason for them to cheer themselves up by going on holiday.

Which, for some, might mean going even more into debt all because of a slick advertising gimmick which seems to have acquired itself more of a cast iron credibility veneer every year. Don’t fall for it.

Forbes Magazine produced a great article that further debunked the myth behind Blue Monday on the day itself. The feature points out how , amongst other things, it has ‘trivialised depression’.

It’s an interesting read with the most important thing to realise and remember that there is absolutely no such thing as ‘Blue Monday. It has no scientific or psychological credibility and is purely an exploitive device aimed at relieving people of their money.

Many people enter a new year with plans of how they are going to improve their lives over the next twelve months. If the intent is there then, more often than not, the results you are looking for will follow.

So do me a favour. Throw ‘Blue Monday’ in the bin where it belongs and listen to what you want rather than what a travel company wants to you to hear.