SAN FRANCISCO _ Donald Trump has decided that free media alone will not be enough to win the 2016 presidential election.
Trump's campaign has ordered broadcast television ads totaling $4 million over the next two weeks in the battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Ohio. The first spots will air on Friday.
An additional $900,000 worth of cable television ads in those states has also been placed.
Trump, who has eschewed ad spending in favor of free media coverage to fuel his outsider campaign, has fallen over the past few weeks in most recent swing state and national polls.
While Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the super PACs supporting her have spent heavily on television advertising during the Olympic Games, Trump has yet to counter.
Trump's ad buy will run until Aug. 29, but he won't have the airwaves all to himself.
Clinton is slated to spend $17 million and the pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA has committed $5 million during roughly the identical time period in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire and Nebraska.
Trump's first ad is likely to generate a tremendous amount of scrutiny, Bloomberg Politics contributor Ken Goldstein said.
"It's an ad that a lot of people are going to be talking about," Goldstein said. "She will outspend him roughly 4-to-1 over the next couple of weeks. But what you have to ask yourself is, given the amount of free media this ad will attract, is which ads will end up getting more attention."
During the Republican primary, Trump relied on free media to propel him past GOP rivals who vastly outspent him in paid advertising.
