Last week, John McCain released more ads than both of his well-funded Democratic rivals combined -- on the Internet, at least.

To complement his biographical campaign tour, which began last Monday, the Arizona senator released a new Web-only video almost daily in an effort to set the tone for that day's news coverage, frame his scheduled events and speeches and pick up earned media by getting free replay on cable news. More broadly, the tour and Web campaign are part a larger effort to define McCain's candidacy while his opponents remain stalemated for the Democratic nomination and third-party attack groups find themselves temporarily starved for cash.

With titles such as "Character Forged By Family" and "Sacrifice," the ads take as their common theme events that shaped McCain's early life, from his favorite teacher in high school to his military service in Vietnam. Certain motifs reappear throughout, like images of a stream of smoke and old snapshots.

But the campaign doesn't want all the black-and-white photos to leave the impression that McCain is stuck in the past or too old for the presidency.

"It wasn't a nostalgia tour," said Crystal Denton, a McCain spokeswoman. "All the speeches, all of the remarks focused on the experiences that have shaped John McCain into the man he is and what he'll bring to the office."

Besides costing a tiny fraction of a mid-size national TV buy, the Web-only format of the ads gives them the luxury of length, and most run between one and three minutes. As for the relative reach of such long spots, the campaign purchased ad space on national news Web sites directing viewers toward its site, and portions of the ads were picked up and replayed on cable news stations. But as of this writing, even the most popular of the ads had topped out at around 14,000 views on YouTube. McCain's last TV spot is nearing a quarter-million views on YouTube.

Although the campaign would likely be pleased if more voters spent the time to watch the clips -- or McCain's earlier 12-minute-long "docu-tisement" -- aides seem just as concerned with reaching the group McCain has previously called his base: journalists. (Not all reporters are as skeptical of such offerings as The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder, who called McCain's last Web offering "a video press release designed for the media's consumption.")

Denton acknowledged the role of the Web ads in "fram[ing] the discussion" during McCain's much-publicized tour, but says the videos are really about the candidate and voters. "I'm sure we'll continue to do them," she said. "They're an interesting opportunity to introduce people to John McCain and the things he wants to do as president."