• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, November 5, 2024

Whatever the outcome, here’s an election night certainty: Millions of Americans are so anxious that hyperventilating is a genuine possibility. Calm, the meditation app, is again swooping into the rescue, this time with 15 and 30-second spots of silence.

The ads are scheduled to run on CNN, ABC, and Comedy Central during Election Night, with some placements continuing on CNN through Nov. 10. “We wanted to meet people where they were with a real-time moment of calm, delivered through an unexpected 15- to 30-second silent ad break in between the updates and alerts,” a company spokesperson tells Marketing Daily.

And when the talking heads get overwhelming, Calm is urging people to tap into their animal instinct with a San Diego Zoo Election Day Livestream on Calm’s Instagram Live.

It begins in the afternoon and runs until the polls close, promising to help people with adorable capybaras, meerkats and penguins instead of high-strung pundits.

For the last several weeks, Calm has also been offering free “Election Season Support” content, which includes expert-guided meditations, Sleep Stories, and resilience-building exercises.

This is not Calm’s first election rodeo. In 2020, it ran ads with soothing raindrops, sponsoring the 2020 CNN Key Race Alert. The company also used social media to soothe anguished viewers during the presidential debate earlier this season, signing off with this: “No debate about it. It’s bedtime now. TV off. Sleep Story on.”

“Calm is committed to supporting people through life’s most stressful moments, including another frenetic election season,” the spokesperson says via email. “We knew providing moments of calm was essential this election season, from debate nights through election week and beyond.”