Marketing and Advertising is about communicating a product to someone that may be interested in purchasing it.

This is only what advertising is about for the advertisers.

For the other side of the coin, namely, the platforms that sell users to the advertisers, advertising is about capturing as much attention as possible in order to sell it. That means addiction, scams, sensationalism, lying, and preying on fear, greed, lust, and all the baser motives of a human being.