Real player makes my head explode

I used to be a huge fan of real player, back when it was the king of the hill. They always had quick releases, and each release made streaming media faster and of higher quality. But, over the last few years, their aggressive marketing strategies have really bothered me. I hate that an installation of real player comes with a bunch of extra crap. Shortcuts all over the place, auto starting apps., etc.

I realize that if Real didn't market their product like this, Real player would be marginalized even more by Microsoft's monopolistic practices (with windows media player). I mean, let's face it. When was the last time you went to a site that required real player? It almost never happens anymore.
Well, I installed real player the other day, and yesterday I was greeted with the 'Real message center', or something like that. Normally I'd just remove it from my startup and go on. But this time I was very upset because the message center announced that I could get the SI swimsuit issue. Real, if you are listening (yeah right), please stop these aggressive adware moves!