Marketing does more than just create ads: they research what their customers want, what they say they want vs. what they actually buy, and it doesn't matter how good your product is if no one knows about it.
The problem is that there are almost always other companies making the same/similar products, so you create a race-to-the-bottom effect where you have to eventually get more and more crazy in your methods of reaching a target audience. Don't blame marketing, blame capitalism.