It’s true, we’re in the middle of January, it’s cold and everything is a little gray. It’s winter and its classic share of seasonal depression. So far nothing too bad, the month of January is always a little sadder than the others. We have just returned to work, the holidays are over and winter is in full swing. Lots of reasons to be depressed after all!
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A concept born from a marketing agency
Surfing on this somewhat gloomy climate to which Westerners are accustomed, a company hastened to create a marketing concept to make money on it.
Presented in 2005, this invention is from the imagination of the British chain and travel agency SkyTravel. Under the cover of a mathematical formula, the company created this concept with the aim of selling stays in the sun.
A bogus mathematical formula
The pseudo-mathematical formula being as follows: [W = (D-d)] x TQ: M x Na. In detail, the “W” represents the weather (“weather” in English), “D-d” represents debts incurred during the holidays and the ability to repay them before “T”the time since December 25.
Q represents the period since the traditional New Year’s resolutions. The whole is divided by the lack of motivation “M”itself multiplied by the need to act “That”. You put it all in a shaker for the days of the year and you finally have the 3rd Monday of January.
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-Blue Monday has been debunked, but it remains
But in reality, no scientific work corroborates this formula. This was formulated by the agency with Cliff Arnall, a so-called psychologist at Cardiff University (he only gave a few rare evening classes there).
According to psychiatrist Ben Goldacre, the scam goes even further! In fact, the communications agency in charge of the marketing project had proposed to other researchers to add their name to this study to bring credit to the “blue monday”. Asked by the TelegraphCliff Carnal himself confirmed the agency’s intention in 2010:
“I was originally asked to put together what I thought would be the best day to book this holiday”
That being said, despite this well-known maneuver aimed at psychologizing a problem in order to provide a ready-made market response, certain companies still continue to surf on this “blue monday”. We advise you to listen again to the eponymous title of New Order, at least the day will pass faster!
Source used:
FranceInfo: We tell you the story of “blue Monday”, this so-called most depressing day of the year
