The Not-so-Blue day after Blue Monday
The dreaded third Monday of January is a day that has been dubbed the “most depressing day of the year.” Ironically, the bleakest day of the year has gotten over 20,000 news mentions. The media enjoys doling out depression. Social media has created numerous viral posts about the dispiriting day that is Blue Monday. The only sad part of this day for me was the fact that the liquor store didn’t open for 2 more hours, so I had to go through the blue motions until relief came and I was able to numb myself into oblivion. Insert silent judgment here.
The biggest problem with Blue Monday (and the slightly less blue days that follow) is that we as a people live in a constant state of dissatisfaction. Think about it: our steep expectations are breached by inferior gourmet restaurant meals, shoddy 5 star tv shows, and bad-mannered customer service people that can make your entire week blue.
The basic factor here is to be cognizant of the fact that we all have a nagging feeling that there are so many things out there that we still haven’t accomplished. You can run your 5 miles in the morning, drink your kale smoothie, clean the entire house (including the walls and baseboards), climb into bed at night with a vigorous feeling of satisfaction. At that precise moment, you remember that you forgot to do the laundry. All of your positive vibes have now collided with your dismay and you are left blu-er than you were when you started. Goodnight.
This is an utterly exhausting way to live. The precise reason that Dr. Cliff Arnal – the actual self-proclaimed inventor of Blue Monday, has now started a twitter campaign called #stopbluemonday. Blue Monday was an ad campaign created by a UK based travel agency to sell off vacations. They capitalized on dismal variables such as the weather, debt, and horribly failed New Year’s resolutions. If you promised yourself that you would stop smoking, and save money during your drunken stupor on Dec. 31st, and find yourself still huffing and counting pennies between couch cushions, then Blue Monday was all about making YOU happy again. Irish Jig happy.
The extremely lucrative marketing trap is one of the best PR gimmicks out there. Take it as such. Utilize it for it’s benefits, not it’s deficiencies. I call for a new outlook on this PR Hoax. Let’s make an exciting day the day after Blue Monday. Promote cotton candy or bubblegum and call it the #happiestdayoftheyear. That’s a bandwagon I’d be happy to skip right onto.
