Although I am a satisfied Washington Mutual customer, with positive associations with their brand, I have a beef with their new Whoo Hoo! campaign. Homer Simpson wasn't the first to exclaim it, but we all know it belongs to him. Washington Mutual is trying to steal some of our goodwill towards The Simpsons. They can spell 'Woo' with an 'h', nut nobody can convince me this isn't an unauthorized Simpsons tie-in. Witness the cartoony blue or magenta backgrounds in the signage. Witness the high Homer falsett used to yelp it in the commercial. I don't know if there are legitimate intellectual property violations here, as I doubt anyone from The Simpsons registered the phrase, but it seems wrong. I know it doesn't matter. I know pretty much every injustice in the world is more important than this one. But it's everywhere and it bugs me. The campaign is essentially meaningless. Their PR people and their ad agency (TBWA) claim that it reflects the brand philosophy. Whoo Hoo! is a philosophy? Would the campaign have any legs if it were Hooray! or Oh Yeah! or Yay!? No. Whoo Hoo differs from those phrases only in it's association with The Simpsons. Therefore, Washington Mutual is taking what we associate with The Simpsons and the culture of it's viewers, and saying, "Whoo Hoo! We're that too! WaMu!"

If only one person can get the germ of what I'm trying to say, this will all be worth it.