Most people only see 1-2% of what a marketing department does. The primary goal of a marketing department is to inform and present information in a clear and attractive manner. A good marketing department is also an advocate for what the consumer wants based on research and consumer feedback.

Are there bad actors in marketing. Yes. A lot. Marketing agencies are full of them. Agencies, to generalize, only care about short-term results and selling the client on the next big idea. They won’t be around or have to live with the repurcuions of their bad actions. In fact, the clients are their customer and so they don’t really care about the client’s customers at all so long as the client is paying them. They just need superficial numbers to go up to show the client. They are screwing over the client and customers are unfortunately collateral damage, but the agencies, again, don’t really have to deal with that.

A lot of the most anti-consumer tactics do not work in the long-run. Most consumers aren’t so easily tricked into buying a product today and they most certainly won’t be tricked twice. It doesn’t take too long—usually—for the snake-oil salesman to get run out of town. They just do a lot of damage while around.