Among creative folks, there actually is a strong aversion to working in marketing/advertising. Most writers/artists consider such a career to be "selling out."

Among creative folks, there actually is a strong aversion to working in marketing/advertising. Most writers/artists consider such a career to be "selling out." It's their equivalent to engineers working on weapons technology. Regarding Google: They work on a ton of products that genuinely make the world a better place. Gmail, google search, google news etc etc. That does give the company as a whole a halo. Regarding Facebook: I somewhat agree with you that social media in general is overrated, but many others do genuinely believe that it improves their quality of life. I may not buy it myself, but Facebook can make a strong case for how they are making the world a better place by better connecting people.