I'm addicted to Adium for OSX .. shame there isn't a version, or at least a similar Trillian theme, for WinXP. Haven't found a Windows client I like yet. I know what you mean about the movie though - it forced me twice to use Gaim for a few days before the ad finally rotated again.
EDIT: forgot my favorite 'hack' for AIM:
"DeadAIM." It costs $5 nowadays though and is only compatible with older versions of AIM (v5.5 and below) so I haven't used it since 2002.