The entire North American economy is built on the false promises created by the marketing departments of ALL products/services.
Want to live an active and fun life? Drink Coke.
Want to guarantee a loving family dinner? Make Hamburger Helper.
Want to show her you really care? Buy a diamond.
Want to save the planet? Buy a Prius.
Want to be the best athlete ever? Buy Nike.
Beyond those simple promises, marketing oversells the quality of shitty movies, the quality of shitty beer, the quality of shitty fast food. It convinces people that "new" Tide really works better than the old Tide. It tricks women into buying overly priced skin and hair products. It cons loser men into thinking a fast car, an amazing watch and a nice suit is all it takes to be a hit with the ladies. It makes people overpay 20x for a $1 piece of chamois (the ShamWow), a $1 piece of flannel (the Snuggie), and just about every other crappy product sold on infomercials. It even makes people think they can get that lease on a new BMW for *just* $300/month.
Deception is the cornerstone of ALL marketing - online AND offline.
With that said, I disagree with your statement that marketing is just as morally reprehensible as fraud/theft.
With marketing, consumers have the ability to exercise "buyer beware". They have the ability to research and/or think about the claims being made in the advertising and use rational thought to determine if the claims are bullshit or not. On top of that, just about everyone realizes that advertising IS pure bullshit: exaggerated promises and claims. Deep down, a McDonalds customer knows that a Big Mac isn't the best fucking burger they'll ever have, even though the commercials sure as hell make it look like it is.
With fraud/theft though, the ability for the consumer/victim to exercise this same level of "buyer beware" caution has been eliminated by the scammer through forged and/or fake documentation. Additionally, since the fraud/theft is typically an established financial transaction, the victim doesn't have the expectation they'll be scammed.
For deception to be morally reprehensible, it has to be based on the assumption that all of those being deceived are completely ignorant of the deception.
Marketing doesn't fall under that category. It's definitely questionable, and I certainly don't consider myself a saint by any means, but marketing is absolutely not on the same level as the claims being made in the lawsuit.
(yeah this is a bit in the tl;dr range, but I take what I do quite seriously and have to speak up when I'm called a scamming cunt
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