A new study from the Wisconsin Advertising Project shows Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate John McCain are spending heavily on TV advertising in competitive states.
According to the study, Obama outspent McCain on TV advertisements during the week of Sept. 28-Oct. 4, with the Obama campaign spending almost $17 million and the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee spending a total of $11 million.
Over half of this money was spent on Midwest battleground states, including Wisconsin.
The study also shows McCain spent over $1 million in Michigan during the week before he pulled his campaign from the state.
During that week, the study found almost 100 percent of McCain's advertisements were negative, while 34 percent of Obama's ads were negative.
According to Dhavan Shah, a UW-Madison journalism and mass communication professor, Obama has tried to avoid going too negative because refraining from that type of politics is part of his image.
If he does go negative, it's at his own peril, but negative ads could be effective,"" Shah said.
Shah said over $1 billion will be spent on campaign ads this year by the time the election arrives.
Kenneth Goldstein, a UW-Madison political science professor and director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, said in a statement that interest groups are not spending as much on issue ads as they have in previous elections.
""Group ads still represent the dog that's not barking,"" Goldstein said.
