Whoo hoo!

"Whoo hoo!" was an advertising campaign introduced by the now-defunct Washington Mutual (WaMu) in February of 2008. As fears of an economic crisis were rising, and WaMu was looking to become an "iconic brand that people love", they began courting consumers with a new slogan, designed to position WaMu as a consumer-friendly institution.cite news|url=http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/creative/news/e3i76778d3ae0efdedcc88a5760b27ea659|title=WaMu Wants Customers Yelling 'Whoo Hoo!'|last=Newman|first=Eric|date=2008-02-13|publisher="Adweek"|accessdate=2008-09-03]

The Whoo hoo! ads, created by TBWAChiatDay of Playa del Rey, California, have become widespread in web navigation.cite news|url=http://seekingalpha.com/article/77898-are-consumers-going-whoo-hoo-over-wamus-new-campaign|title=Are Consumers Going ‘Whoo Hoo’ Over WaMu’s New Campaign?|date=2008-05-19|publisher="Seeking Alpha"|accessdate=2008-09-03] Since WaMu's launch of the new advertisement, there has been double digit growth at its website and the term “wamu” appeared in searches over 1,000% more between January and March than in all of 2007.

Washington Mutual (before its September 2008 demise) applied to register a trademark in the phrase.cite news|url=http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/134038.asp|title=WaMu's 'Whoo-hoo' campaign: Blame 'The Simpsons'|last=Guzman|first=Monica|date=2008-03-11|publisher=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|accessdate=2008-09-21] [U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, application no. [http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77357506 77/357,506] , "WHOO HOO," filed 2007-12-20] Initially, the bank wanted to use "woo hoo" (without the "h" in the first word) as the slogan, but they were concerned because of the existing use of the phrase by Homer Simpson, a character in "The Simpsons".

It is unclear as to whether the ad campaign has been or will be discontinued in light of the takeover of WaMu in September 2008 by US government regulators and ultimately by JPMorgan Chase.

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