Money Saving Expert’s Martin Lewis (PA)
(Picture: PA Archive)Consumer champion Martin Lewis has said so-called “Blue Monday” is made-up pseudoscience by a travel company to sell winter holidays.
The concept was first popularised by travel firm Sky Travel in a 2005 press release, which alleged that the third Monday of January is typically the most depressing day of the year.
It claims that this is because of a combination of post-Christmas blues, financial stress and miserable weather among other factors.
However, mental health campaigners have criticised the term as unhelpful pseudoscience.
Throwing his weight behind their criticisms, the MoneySavingExpert founder said: “Blue Monday is a piece of crap pseudo science originally part of a travel company's press release to sell holidays.
“Can we all try to avoid rewarding marketeers, using this term, which tries to sell goods by parasiting on the back of real mental health campaigns.”
The call was backed by the Samaritans helpline, which listed three reasons why the term could “get in the bin”.
The charity tweeted: “It was made up in 2005 to help a travel company sell holidays. There’s no scientific evidence, it’s just a marketing gimmick.
“It plays into unhelpful stereotypes around mental health. We all have bad days and they have nothing to do with a random day in January.”
Nueroscientist Dr Emma Thnell added: "As a neuroscientist I'm totally behind [Martin Lewis]. I'm not going to promote the colour and the day of the week because it's utter bulls**t that's used to sell products.”
Lewis has previously slammed the term, saying he worried that firms were using it as a means to sell things.
Speaking to The Sun in 2018, he said: “It's baloney. It's important to understand that it's a marketing promotion.
"I just worry that some companies are using it as part of reason to flog stuff. Many people with depression or a clinical mental illness...spending is a big issue for them.
"It's really inappropriate that they are being targeted with Blue Monday sales."
