Visual images are not simply embodiments of social reality; they are indeed ideological sites embedded with powerful discursive sociopolitical meanings that exert strong influences on the ways in which people live their lives. The author of this paper describes the Ad-Deconstruction Project, which challenged students to integrate aesthetic sensitivity and social awareness and equipped them with critical knowledge necessary to live in a world of commercial image-saturated consumerism within which they are profit-motivated targets. Through the dialogic, writing, and production activities in the Ad-Deconstruction project, the students explored connections between activist art and advertising, experienced basic creative processes and techniques used for cigarette advertising, and learned about critical messages concerned with smoking. At the end of the workshop, the students' redesigned cigarette ads were publicly displayed at a university-based art gallery. The Ad-Deconstruction Project has allowed both the public and students to experience the power of visual imagery and how art can be utilized as a sociopolitical instrument to promote an awareness of unethical social practices. (Contains 2 notes and 2 figures.)