The world will be watching as athletes from around the world face off in two weeks worth of competitions beginning Friday in Beijing. But American viewers will witness another spectacle, as well -- the presidential campaign.

Rather than take any time off from the furious schedule of the election season, Barack Obama and John McCain will continue to broadcast their message to voters around the country, as both have purchased advertising time on the network of NBC Universal channels that will be broadcasting the Games -- including NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA Network, Oxygen and Telemundo.

Obama announced his ad buy several weeks ago, but the McCain camp one-upped the Illinois senator on Tuesday, announcing he would top Obama's $5 million purchase by an additional $1 million. The spots will run on network and cable channels between Friday, when the Games begin, and August 25, the day before the Democratic National Convention begins in Denver.

The ad buys are unusual in that, in recent years, campaigns have focused their resources on certain battleground states or cable television channels. Advertising Age, which broke the news of McCain's Olympics purchase, reports that these purchases "are the first substantial buys of national network TV by any presidential candidate in 12 years."

Neither campaign would comment on the decision to run ads during the Olympics or release any information about what kind of spots they will be airing.