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Valdez 1
Jamie Ray Martinez Valdez
Professor Jason Romero
English 101
23 April 2021
“Flatline”
During the beginning of Barack Obama’s first term as our Commander-in-Chief, middle-
class Americans were in search of jobs, earnings plummeted, spending and debt increased.
When Obama won the election for President, he inherited a recession and spent his first-term.
His efforts in trying to rebuild the economy were not successful. In the ad “Flatline”, Restore
Our Future, Inc. declares to middle-class Americans not to elect Obama for another four more
years as President of the United States. The ad draws in viewers from the middle-class because
of how it affects them from a financial and metaphoric standpoint. The ad evokes feelings of
shock due to the relations of how the economy is and how it will affect their income. The ad
“Flatline” uses visual and structural metaphors, as well as Ethos and elements of synthesizing to
demonstrate Barack Obama’s negative impact on the U.S. economy and to argue that Mitt
Romney will be able to restore the U.S. economy.
The major rhetorical strategy used in “Flatline” is a structural metaphor comparing the
U.S. economy to a dying hospital patient. The metaphors expressed in this ad are like hearing
the sound of an electrocardiogram machine constantly beeping is the sound of a healthy heart.
Suddenly, the constant beeping sinks to a flatline. The ad states, “Well, this flatline is Barack
Valdez 2
Obama’s economy.” The metaphor used in this quote represents the heartbeat taking a plunge
to its fate like an emergency room’s EKG. Obama is represented as the doctor, and the
economy, his patients. The ad argues that his way of treating his patients had many negative
effects, which portrays his Ethos negatively to the viewers. A doctor has to respond to warning
signals when patients require help. They are held to a high expectation to keep their patients
alive and kept strong for the long run. If the doctor doesn’t aid their patients, problems will
occur and eventually if not treated right away, death. The ad tells the viewers that Obama isn’t
the right doctor for the job, in this case, the President, and goes on to illustrate the reasons
why.
The ad’s structural metaphor is extended to define the ailing parts of the U.S. economy,
