Marketing is spam the moment someone on either side of the exchange wonders if it might be spammy. It is solely the recipient’s judgement call, and the communication channels and marketers’ best-practices should facilitate or even encourage the recipient’s ability to say so.

You’re not overreacting if you feel put-off: marketing just sucks. Dialog, rich interaction and sharing are possible on a broader scale than ever, and the edge of where that becomes unwelcome broadcast crap is very diffuse. Therein lies the rub. You felt a little bad about getting used, but there was friction removing yourself from the action & telling the marketer so. Bad for you, bad for the marketer.