‘Blue Monday’ is the name given to the supposedly most depressing day of the year, typically the third Monday in January. The concept was originally devised by Cliff Arnall, a British psychologist, in 2005. To determine this day, Arnall used a formula that took into account various factors such as the weather, debts accumulated over the holidays, the time elapsed since Christmas, the failure of New Year’s resolutions and low motivation.
When it was created, it was part of an advertising campaign for a travel company that wanted to encourage people to book holidays to lift their mood in January. So we can most likely regard it as a commercial ploy.
As confirmation of this, over the years various companies and brands have used Blue Monday in their marketing campaigns, often to promote products or services that supposedly help to fight sadness or improve wellbeing. This has led to criticism for trivialising serious problems such as depression and for creating a commercial phenomenon based on a scientifically unfounded concept.
