Orange Is The New Black-Mood Battler

Any Monday in January is enough to make most people want to lie down in the path of heavy traffic, but today, Blue Monday, is officially the most depressing day of the year for those of us in the Northern Hemispere. But you can put down your Prozac, crack pipe, multi-pack of Krispy Kremes, or whatever you’re using to get through the pain as TBWA’s drive for charity Rays of Sunshine spreads a message of cheer in the form of the popular citrus fruit – whose colour is the opposite, or complementary hue, of blue.

Today, lucky London commuters and office workers will receive an orange and a compliment and will be encouraged to pass on the goodwill by writing nice things on an orange and passing it on, along with texting a donation to Rays of Sunshine, the UK charity that grants wishes – such as trips to Disneyland or meetings with mermaids – to seriously ill children. The message behind the drive is that many kids’ blues aren’t confined to one day a year.

A kit containing all essential information can be accessed via the campaign website, and other activity includes celebrity ambassadors of Rays of Sunshine tweeting their support, stores around the country offering oranges free with a tweet or a text, and fruit retailers encouraging people to buy oranges to share via campaign signs in-store.

Any small sliver of sunshine is welcome, as apparently this year’s Blue Monday is set to be the bluest on record. So says Dr Cliff Arnall, the former Cardiff University boffin, who in 2005 came up with a light-hearted formula for predicting the gloomiest day of the year, based on factors including weather, debts, time since Christmas etc. He reckons what with the Brexit/Trump axis of gloom, the death of Bowie/Prince/George Michael and all hope, this one’s gonna be a bad’un. You might want a little vodka with that orange…