Parody involves creating humor through "imitating a style or genre of literature or other media" (Buijzen & Valkenburg, 2004, p. 154). More specifically, Bush, Bush, and Boller (1994) argued that parody involves both imitation of an original text, and discrepancies from the original that create humor and insight. The discrepancies provide cues to the audience that the message serves as parody. Furthermore, Bush et al. (1994) contended that parody can serve as a form of criticism in that "effective parody can serve to help us re-describe what we take for granted as conventional wisdom, rational thought and timeless truth to be absurd wisdom, incongruous thought and unreasonable truth" (p. 68). This unit activity involves students creating parodies of print advertisements. The point of the parody is to make a social commentary about advertising practices. Through a presentation of the ads and class discussion, students work to understand the interrelationships among concepts of persuasion, culture, criticism, parody, and advertising. Woodward and Denton (2009) explained several criticisms of advertising, such as the use of deception, language that violates grammar rules, targeting children, and promoting consumerism and other negative social effects. Students create parody ads to critique one or more of these practices. Through class discussion, students explore how their ads, and all ads, tap into cultural values, practices, and meanings.