By Xinhua,
Washngton : Americans are seeing more TV campaign ads in this presidential election, because presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain have intensified reach to voters, the USA Today reported Wednesday.
Democrat Obama has spent 27 million U.S. dollars on general-election ads while his Republican rival John McCain has spent 25 million dollars.
Both are on the air in key states including Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Obama advertises in Virginia, and McCain reaches voters in the northern part of the state by running ads in Washington.
Obama’s five-million-dollar ad buy on NBC and its cable networks includes prime-time spots during the two weeks of the Beijing Olympics, which end Aug. 24, the day before the Democratic National Convention begins.
It’s the first network ad by a presidential candidate since Republican Bob Dole aired commercials during the 1996 World Series.
Via NBC, Obama could reach 25 million U.S. viewers at once during the Olympics.
Due to financial disadvantage, rather than buying airtime for some ads, the McCain campaign has relied on the lower-cost alternative of launching them on Internet sites such as YouTube.