The race between Barack Obama and John McCain is just getting started, but potential presidential nominees have already spent $900 million getting to this point (including $200+ million by Hillary Clinton and $100+ million by Mitt Rommney). That's a lot of money and is surely helping the flailing media community.

But wait, they aren't done. Obama is reportedly spending half a million per week in 16 different swing states, money that is helping his cause.

It remains to be seen whether the spending push comes too early, but if McCain — who's had money troubles in the past — thought Obama had loose purse strings way back in February, we can only imagine what he'll say going forward.

Our brother bloggers at PRNewser just posted a quite excellent interview with tech PR guru Robert Scoble that we recommend checking out. Scoble is currently in charge of new venture FastCompany.TV. A choice excerpt:

PRNewser: Well you do have your phone number on your blog, you drop it on Twitter, how does that work? How many calls do you get a day? Do you get a lot of prank calls from people?

RS: I don't get a lot of those calls, because the phone, it gives me your identity and if you call me I can call you back. So, if you call me with something idiotic, I can call you back at three in the morning and bother you too. So right there's that built in trust with the phone. I guess that's one way to contact me. I get a lot of email, so if you're sending me an email, if you want to rise above the clutter, put something on it, say "hey!"

Scoble is speaking at the Mediabistro Circus as well.

We just (unfortunately) live in it.

Urban Outfitters' advertisement for their new Brooklyn location (at Atlantic Ave. between Clinton & Court) just got our attention. First picked up by Sam Horine and quickly afterwards by our friends at Gothamist, it's one giant pile of WTF.

1. The L train runs nowhere near Cobble Hill. In fact, Google Maps tells us that the drive from Atlantic Avenue & Clinton Street to the nearest L stop at Bedford Avenue is 4.9 miles.
2. Paul's Boutique was in Manhattan, dipwads.
3. Couldn't you have gotten a better pic of DUMBO, err, Dumbo?
4, 5, 6....
852. The design sucks. We could do better on a PD analogue of Pagemaker at 2am after three tumblers of Wild Turkey 101. Really.

This is why sometimes we fantasize about moving to Bay Ridge or Midwood and just watching New York's incoming creative field types kill each other off from the comfort of an old man bar. It's tempting... and besides, the pizza there is better anyhow.

Pity poor Anthony Bourdain. The Travel Channel host was recently recruited as the network's HD poster boy, as shown in the ad above. People were a bit surprised.

Bourdain was one of them. He writes:

You have to wonder about an ad depicting a dead squirrel--with the caption "Some Things Look Better In HD." Which is pretty much what the geniuses at Travel Promo have subjected innocent members of the public to. Actually, it was worse: An old photo of yours truly--after a horrifying night of drinking in Iceland, huddled, near naked in the Blue Lagoon, pondering whether to throw up or simply sink beneath the surface and die. Is this enticing? Does this make ANYONE--even longtime convicts--feel compelled to tune in? Some Things May Indeed Be Better in HD. My puffy, drink ravaged face and 51 year old naked torso would NOT be one of them.

For more adventures in cringe-inducing Travel Channel advertising, click here.

Florida minor league baseball team the Lakeland Flying Tigers wanted to drum up some interest in their team... so they decided to do something different.

They would offer their fans the opportunity to participate in some honest-to-God baseball dinner theatre: Spend an Evening with Ty Cobb. Here's the word from the Tigers:

Doors will open at 7 p.m. Dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m. and the performance will begin at 8 p.m. Guests will receive dinner served by a Detroit Tigers Minor League Baseball player, the opportunity to eat in the Detroit Tigers cafeteria, and a four act performance featuring Norm Coleman as Ty Cobb. The four acts will document Cobb's life, his relationship with Joe DiMaggio, and his time as a captain in the army during World War I.

Coleman has thrilled audiences throughout the West Coast as he has performed his one-man-show based on the legendary Ty Cobb. Finally, he is bringing his show to Tiger Town. The four act performance has been called, "entertaining, humorous, historical, splendid, and awesome."

He was also one of the worst human beings to ever play baseball. Will the part where Ty Cobb stabbed a black security guard in a pique of racist fury make it into the dinner theatre? Eh, probably not.

Barack Obama's campaign has announced the purchase of nearly $750,000 in advertising on New York television stations in preperation for the February 5 primary.

This is a bit surprising... Obama was not expected to purchase ads in the market due to, of course, New York being Hillary Rodham Clinton's home state. However, the ads (which are expected to include heavy placement on shows like Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and Oprah) indicate that Obama is betting heavily on winning in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The irony? A few hours after Obama's announcement, the Clinton camp announced they were buying $700,000 in ads of their own... for the same programs as Obama.

Gotta love politics.

We just laid our eyes on some of the worst promotional swag in the history of public relations courtesy of our friends at The Onion. Who wouldn't want a Ben Stiller pillow from a Farrelly brothers movie or a Millard Filmore patriotic American activities kit from Random House books?

Read it, kids. This is good.

Rudy Giuliani has made a big deal out of his new, tough-on-illegal immigration stance. But with his campaign faltering, Giuliani decided to try a different tact.

For Florida, with its large Hispanic population and upcoming primary, Giuliani is unveiling Spanish-language advertisements.

In New Hampshire, Giuliani finished a distant third in the Republican primary with just 10 percent of the vote — tied with Ron Paul.

After the jump, the full script of the commercial with translation, as provided by CNN.com

continued...

Equinox Fitness' latest series of sex-themed ads (pictured) have garnered some critical praise after appearences in Vanity Fair, US Weekly and The New York Post. But have the ads, made by the Fallon firm worked? Ad Age reports:

Fallon hired Paris fashion photographer and director Ellen van Unwerth to shoot the campaign. The photos focus on four themes: female and male sexual fantasy, inner beauty and eternal youth. They all carry sexual overtones, from three nuns painting a nude male model in a David-like pose to women eating fruit off a man's stomach.

"We wanted it to be visually arresting enough so people will understand and take note of the campaign," Ms. Benjamin said.

Though the ads have generated the predictable media buzz, feedback has been somewhat mixed. Some have praised the campaign for being sexy, bold and edgy; critics say the ads are too racy and that they don't explicitly say what Equinox is or what it offers. The chain has had to placate some members who misunderstood the ads' intent.

Getting to the gist of things: They're advertisements for a gym chain that don't contain any reference to fitness at all. Yet they're working.

PR Newswire has just acquired Hispanic PR Wire, our brother blog PRNewser reports. The official word per PR Newswire:

PR Newswire today announced its acquisition of Hispanic PR Wire, LatinClips, and Hispanic Digital Network, recognizing the need for highly targeted marketing tools among those who communicate with the influential, fast-growing Hispanic market.

Press release here.