{"id":42603,"date":"2013-11-18T02:21:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T02:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination\/"},"modified":"2013-11-18T02:21:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-18T02:21:00","slug":"marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketers Who Practice &#8220;Social Discrimination&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the fastest-growing online businesses is the business of spying on Internet users. Communications Professor Joseph Turow writes: &quot;We&#39;re at the start of a revolution in the ways marketers and media intrude&mdash;and shape&mdash;our lives. Every day, most if not all Americans who use the internet &hellip; are being quietly peeked at, poked, and tagged as they move through the online world.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>In other words, every time you click a link, fill out a form, or visit a website, advertisers are collecting personal information about you. Then companies target ads for you based on that information. Turow says that a recent online Valentine&#39;s Day card he sent to his wife, contained trackers from 15 different companies. Even a simple online greeting card purchase reveals a lot about you.<\/p>\n\n<p>The goal is to sell us stuff more efficiently, but Turow worries that this new technology is creating a society where our value is defined by profiles we don&#39;t even know are being built. For example, marketers already have developed a new jargon that divides people into two distinct categories: &quot;targets&quot; and &quot;waste.&quot; In the future, Turow says, advertisers might you place you in &quot;reputation silos&quot; that discriminate those pegged as &quot;down-market.&quot; Turow says,<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I&#39;m concerned about &hellip; social discrimination. In an everyday world where companies are deciding [how] I&#39;m targeted, making up pictures about me, I&#39;m getting different ads and different discounts and different maps of even where I might sit in an airplane based on what they think about me &hellip; It has a lot of ramifications of how we see ourselves and how we see other people.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: <strong>Favoritism; Prejudice; Dignity<\/strong>&mdash;This new technology is a highly-sophisticated form of an old-fashioned sin&mdash;favoritism. The new form of prejudice will be based on our &quot;reputation silos.&quot; &quot;Targets&quot; is bad enough, but can you imagine calling human beings &quot;waste&quot;?<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3492,3644,3781,3798,3811,3822,3929,3976,4311,4693,4705,4761,4818,5213],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42603","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-bigotry","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-dignity","tax_ctp_tags-discrimination","tax_ctp_tags-disunity","tax_ctp_tags-division","tax_ctp_tags-factions","tax_ctp_tags-fear","tax_ctp_tags-judging-others","tax_ctp_tags-prejudice","tax_ctp_tags-priesthood-of-believers","tax_ctp_tags-racism","tax_ctp_tags-respect","tax_ctp_tags-unity"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Marketers Who Practice &quot;Social Discrimination&quot; - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marketers Who Practice &quot;Social Discrimination&quot; - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the fastest-growing online businesses is the business of spying on Internet users. Communications Professor Joseph Turow writes: &quot;We&#039;re at the start of a revolution in the ways marketers and media intrude&mdash;and shape&mdash;our lives. Every day, most if not all Americans who use the internet &hellip; are being quietly peeked at, poked, and tagged Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination\/\",\"name\":\"Marketers Who Practice \\\"Social Discrimination\\\" - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-18T02:21:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-18T02:21:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Marketers Who Practice &#8220;Social Discrimination&#8221;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Marketers Who Practice \"Social Discrimination\" - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/marketers-who-practice-social-discrimination\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Marketers Who Practice \"Social Discrimination\" - CT Pastors","og_description":"One of the fastest-growing online businesses is the business of spying on Internet users. 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