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> What if you replaced the word marketing with attention?

Then you would be making a different argument. Marketing and attention are not the same thing: the former is one means to the latter. Marketing is grabbing attention by force, which could be considered unethical; attention by itself can be consensual and organic.

This conflates the ends and the means. They're different and both deserve consideration.

Some reading:

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_end_justifies_the_mean...

https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_the-business-ethics-work...

The competition of legal entities for our attention seems to be one of the major reasons of chronic stress and mental illness in the west, so the answer is yes.