In this lesson students explore what's hidden behind advertising messages by analysing and creating parody advertisements.

Learning Outcomes:

Students demonstrate:

• an understanding that advertisements don't necessarily tell the whole truth about a product
• an awareness that advertisements are designed to deliver very specific messages to consumers

Preparation and Materials

Sample parody ads are available from Adbusters, on their Web site at www.adbusters.org. You can print a few of these prior to class or, if your school library or the public library have copies of Adbusters magazine, you can flag the pages these ads appear on, and pass them around the class.

You will need:

• assorted magazines
• parody ads
• art supplies (optional)
• paper for brainstorming answers in groups
• markers.

The Lesson

Guided Discussion

Parody ads are a fun way to analyse popular advertisements. When you spoof an ad, you take the elements of the ad that give it power, and make them absurd. You turn the message around to show that it is ridiculous or even untrue.

Activity

• Have students work in small groups.
  
• Give each group a parody ad to look at (and, if possible, a sample of the original ad that it parodies.)
  
• Have students answer the following questions. (Write these questions on the board or have them ready on flip chart paper.)
  
  
  • What was the first thing you noticed about the ad?
    
  • What is being made fun of in the ad?
    
  • What is different or the same compared to the real ad?
    
  • How did it make you feel?
    
  • Did the parody ad change how you look at the original advertisers?
    
• Tell students they have 5 minutes to answer these questions as a group and to write down their answers in point form. Students will be asked to share their responses with the rest of the class.
  
• Give students some real ads, or have them choose real ads to spoof out of the magazines that have been brought to class.
  
• In their groups they will create a spoof ad. They may want to make collages by cutting out of magazines, draw or paint their ads, use computer generated images, or you may think of another medium students would like to use.
  
• Make sure to leave enough time to have students explain their work to the rest of the class.

Question for discussion: "Why is humour an effective way to make a point?"

Evaluation

• Group parody ad assignment