Brands take a ‘no year’s resolution’ approach to kick off 2023

It’s that time of year again—when lofty resolutions are made and every post, blog, article, and ad reminds you of ways you could be optimizing.

But this year, some brands are taking a different approach, encouraging people instead to maybe take it easy and have more of a low-key new year rather than set difficult goals.

“We’re hoping to really give people a break in how hard they are on themselves and how much people and brands around them are continuing to pile on, asking them to do more and more and more,” Brittany Izrailov, chief customer officer at vitamin company Care/of, told us.

Rather than take a “new year, new you” route, Izrailov told us that the company created its “Do Less, Feel More” campaign to “give [people] space to feel good just as they are and to know that they’re doing enough.” To go along with this idea, the company created the Anti-Planner as a way to encourage focusing on emotional well-being rather than checking off tasks.

Another vitamin company, Nature Made, decided to steer away from “scare-based advertising” and focus on positive messaging for its new year campaign. WeightWatchers similarly took a more gentle approach in its latest ad, which encourages people to reduce the negative self-talk often associated with weight management.

Tito’s vodka took a slightly different approach with a tongue-in-cheek, yet (sadly?) relatable take on Dry January in its latest ad with Martha Stewart, which shows Stewart finding ways to use Tito’s besides drinking it, while taking liberties here and there to get through the month.

Equinox seems to have also aimed for an anti-resolution theme in its latest campaign, which includes the slogan “We don’t speak January” and the hashtag #ItsNotFitnessItsLife. According to Michelle Ruth, VP at DKC, a PR firm working with Equinox, the campaign was meant to show that “fitness doesn’t start at the beginning of the year or on a Monday.”

Equinox CMO Jeff De Korte said the campaign “gets at the heart of why Equinox was created in the first place. We believe long-term health and resolve is greater than temporary resolutions,” according to a statement shared by Ruth.

However, the company’s decision to close new memberships on January 1 found mixed results on social media, with some saying it came off as shaming those trying to start new habits, while others found it appropriate for the brand’s target audience. Both Planet Fitness and Anytime Fitness took it as an opportunity to emphasize their openness to new members on social media.

Will Mayer, VP and executive creative director at Equinox, told The Drum that “Equinox exemplifies the belief that life is forged at the extremes, and because we are for people who constantly push themselves to those extremes, we can’t in good conscience support the ‘new year, new me’ movement that happens every January.”

Editor's note 01/09/22: This story has been updated to include a quote from Equinox CMO Jeff De Korte.