Click here to watch "Ignite."

Coinciding with John McCain's heavily promoted economic speech yesterday, his campaign released a new television ad in Ohio and Pennsylvania. "Ignite" (subscription) distills McCain's economic proposals into a series of vague but uplifting slogans: "Taxes: simpler, fairer. Energy: cleaner, cheaper. Health care: portable and affordable."

In addition to buttressing McCain's economic credentials, the ad's presentation seems designed to remind viewers of McCain's "maverick" image by using high-energy production and post-partisan rhetoric that sounds as if it could have come from a Barack Obama speech. "McCain will take the best ideas from both parties," the ad says, promising "initiatives that will unite us" and "big ideas for serious problems."

"Ignite" is McCain's first paid media since the bio ad (subscription) he ran in New Mexico last month, but his campaign has proven adept at finding other ways to place him on television, including a savvy use of Web ads and publicity events. His advisers may have decided that wasn't enough in Pennsylvania and Ohio, however, where dozens of Democratic political ads have saturated the airwaves, giving McCain's eventual general election opponent a head start at reaching voters in those key swing states.