Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ad-wars-heat-up-as-campaigns-sharpen-tactics Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama are taking jabs at each other through a series of television ads, which are drawing attention on both the political and pop culture stages. Two analysts look at the themes and the spending behind the ads. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JUDY WOODRUFF: The paid TV ad contest of the presidential election is heating up in states across the country.John McCain's campaign has spent almost $29 million since mid-May, and Barack Obama's camp spent almost $34 million since June 20th.For more on the themes and the spending strategy behind those spots, we're joined by two ad-watchers. Darrell West is vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. He's the author of the book "Air Wars: TV Advertising and Election Campaigns."And Evan Tracey, who monitors ads for TNS Media Intelligence, a nonpartisan media research firm that tracks political and public affairs advertising.Thank you both for being here.And, Evan Tracey, to you first, you say that you already discern a strategy out there on the part of the McCain camp and the Obama camp? EVAN TRACEY, TNS Media Intelligence: Yes, Judy, it's interesting. Both Senators McCain and Obama had very similar strategies in the primaries, where they bet early with a lot of TV dollars in the early states that got them on their eventual rolls to their nomination.Since then, Senator McCain has spent most of his money in the traditional battleground states, the Iowas, the Ohios, the Pennsylvanias, the Michigans.Obama is also in those states, but he's trying to expand the playing field by targeting states like Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and states also like Montana, Alaska, and North Dakota, really red states, foundations of the Republican battleground strategy.So Obama is looking to expand the playing field; McCain is looking to contract it.