Joe Biden makes his first major ad buy of campaign, pumping $15m into six key battleground states
Former Vice President Joe Biden has made his first major ad buy for the 2020 US election, spending $15 million on digital, TV, print and radio ads.
Mr Biden's campaign bought the ads in six battleground states that President Donald Trump won in 2016.
They will appear in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and will air on cable networks over the next five weeks.
In Florida and Arizona, the campaign will run Spanish language ads.
According to The New York Times, the first ad will be called "Unite Us" and will include portions of Mr Biden's speech in Philadelphia calling for a unifying president.
"I won't traffic in fear and division. I won't fan the flames of hate. I'll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our country, not use them for political gain," Mr Biden says.
The advert reportedly features images of Mr Trump's photo opportunity at St John's Church in Lafayette Park and images of police clearing protesters away from the church with pepper balls.
In another ad, called "My Commitment," the message focuses on the importance of essential workers and calls for increased pay for front-line and essential employees.
In addition, the Biden campaign is also running ads aimed at African American voters. They will begin on Juneteenth – Friday, 19 June – the day commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, and will run in the six battleground states. They will be focused in African American print, digital and radio media.
The ads will begin circulating one day prior to Mr Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his first rally in three months. Mr Trump's campaign claims it has received more than one million ticket requests for the event and will use footage from the rally in future election material.
Mr Trump had to reschedule the rally, which was initially planned for Juneteenth. The campaign was criticised for the date, but also for holding it in Tulsa, the site of the country's worst racist massacre of African Americans, which happened in 1921. During the massacre, white rioters attacked and looted Greenwood, an affluent African American community in Tulsa. Rioters even dropped bombs on the city from planes.
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