OPINION Why New Year resolutions are a marketing scam

Whether promising to quit smoking, learning to cook, becoming vegan or losing weight.

In fact, according to Forbes in the UK, the most common New Year resolutions are to improve fitness (48%), improve diet (32%) and lose weight (34%).

Though there are only ever a select few that actually stick to their resolution for more than two weeks, many call it quits and swear to try again next year.

But it seems like for most ‘trying again next year’ is just a never-ending cycle as they repeat the previous year's habits year after year with no change.

This leads me to the question of what is the point of a New Year’s resolution.

It seems every year we are being told you need to be a 'new you'. (Image: Getty)

New Year's resolutions are outdated marketing scams 

Growing up I was always told that resolutions for the new year are about improving yourself or helping you make progress towards personal goals.

But now, as a tax-paying adult, it seems to me that resolutions are less about improvement and more about smart marketing schemes from brands looking for another way to trick people into spending money.

We see it every year, as soon as the clock strikes midnight on January 1, the adverts start.

‘Get a discount on this gym membership for the new you,’ ‘this subscription box will help you FINALLY become vegan’.

They’re all a load of ‘smart’ taglines put together to tell us that it’s that time of year and you need a resolution, you need to spend money, you need to change.

But do we?

One of the most popular New Year's resolutions is to lose weights. (Image: Getty)

I think you can make a ‘resolution’ at any time of the year, why does it have to be January?

Is it because we are told that’s that and we just stick to it?

Or is it because January is when many are at their most vulnerable so marketing folk make it seem like that’s the best time for ‘deals’ to save money that help you complete your resolution?

I know that some people find that the idea of a New Year’s resolution encourages an attempt to change.

For those doing it for health reasons like quitting smoking or drinking, then, by all means, let January be the ‘month of change.’

But for resolutions like losing weight, I think you should think twice, are you unhappy with your look or are you being told that it’s a new year so you ‘need’ to change?

Scrolling on social media in January seems to be endless 'resolution' adverts. (Image: Getty)

The chances are you don’t, you are just being told that you do every time you turn on the TV, look at a bus advert or even when you’re scrolling through Instagram.

Money-grabbing businesses are using every ounce of marketing techniques to tell you that you need to change, and you need to change now and that you have to spend money to change.

But they’re wrong.

You don’t have to change because it’s a new year and everyone and everything is telling you to.

You’ll know when the time is right to make the change or you’ll discover that you never needed to change, you were just being told to.

So the next time you pick a New Year’s resolution, think are you doing it for yourself, or are you doing it because you’ve seen it plastered on every advert you look at?