I was going for extreme examples to make the point, but look at any modern advertiser: their products are used to target segments of society such that we can be encouraged to either turn against one another or to make some kind of decision which is bad for us and good for whoever is doing the advertising.

The perspective you're describing doesn't seem to have a way to classify this activity as unhelpful without going so far as making it illegal. Without that ability, I don't see how we can ever expect the market's notion of value to find itself in line with society's values. The best we can hope for is a random walk within the bounds of "illegal".