To me, creatively getting people's attention so they buy something that benefits them and you is perfectly okay. What's less acceptable, in my book, is lying to get attention or cynically manipulating customers to extract money for little or nothing.
Psychologists and marketing researchers have discovered many behavioural truths that can get people to spend money. For example, omitting dollar signs on a menu earns more for the restaurant. It would be silly to ignore quirks like that for holier-than-thou reasons.