Politics / John McCain McCain Hopes $6M Olympic Ad Buy a Winner Last-minute grab, rare in national reach, tops Dem's $5M outlay By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff Posted Aug 5, 2008 2:02 PM CDT Copied A member of the Secret Service stands guard next to a screen with John McCain, as McCain delivers the keynote speech to the National Urban League Annual Conference, Aug. 1, 2008, in Orlando. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) Athletes won’t be the only competitors when the Beijing Olympics open Friday, Advertising Age reports: John McCain’s campaign made a last-minute, $6 million ad buy with NBC, topping the whopping $5 million Democratic opponent Barack Obama is spending. The large national scope of the advertising blitz is a rarity in recent presidential campaigns. “For the same reason the idea was good for Barack, it is good for McCain. It's high traffic for eyeballs in a normally low-traffic time of year,” said one media analyst, who also thinks McCain needs to burn his primary-season funds, which can’t be spent after the Republican National Convention. (More John McCain stories.) Report an error