I think marketing is fine until it turns into lies. Reaching people to sell them your product should not be an issue. That, with misrepresentation and misleading claims is an issue.
The next time you're watching a commercial from some company renowned for marketing success (Apple, Coke, etc) pay attention to how much time in the ad the product is in any way mentioned, and how much is... 'other stuff.' That other stuff is the point of the ad, the actual product is largely irrelevant. The world would be vastly better without large scale marketing.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaboration_likelihood_model
The whole industry is creepy, garish, tasteless, and rude. And that’s without lying.
The marketing industry in the US is built not only to get the word out about your product, but also to gatekeep who can compete in our free market.
With marketing being so pervasive as to monetize the entire internet it effectively levies a tax on every business that wants to compete.
If you dont have the marketing budget to outspend your competition then they have no competition.
While Tesla has (in some years) avoided traditional marketing, the ceo is known for spending ridiculous amounts of money on publicity stunts like having a submarine shipped to a cave and buying Twitter to boost public perception of his companies.
I think this is the exception that proves the rule.