McCain is suspending his campaign, right? Putting on his cape and jetting of to Washington to save the economy, in the spirit of bipartisanship and Christmas and shit. And a part of that is suspending all campaign activities such as interviews and advertising. Well we all know that in McCainWorld, "suspending all campaign activities, such as interviews" means "except Katie Couric." However, it seems like the ads, at this point, can't be pulled as well.
MSNBC:
A West coast media buying executive not working with the McCain camp tells NBC News that pulling ads isn't quite as easy as sending out such a directive. "Stations are telling me it can't happen," says the exec. "The campaign knows that it can't happen." That's because computer logs with already-scheduled ad placements may already be locked in.
The ad buyer adds that stations will likely have problems trying to stop ads from running tonight, and some may not be able to get off the air by tomorrow.
This, along with many other factors, is making this look more and more like a desperate and transparent political move. McCain and his campaign likely know that television stations can't pull their advertising this late in the game, and that advertising will likely play until tomorrow. This allows them to talk about suspending the campaign, without loosing airtime before the debate-that-might-not-be-but-probably-will.
To quote David Letterman, this stinks. Badly.