WaMu: marketing ploy or killer whale?

I’ve been wondering what the hell was up with those TV ads for the bank Washington Mutual -- since when do they call themselves “WaMu,” and don’t they realize that it makes the company sound like it’s a performing orca at SeaWorld? I assumed it was some sort of half-assed attempt to appeal to “hipsters” to make us all think there might be a bank that isn’t “square” and “The Man.”

And whaddaya know? Washington Mutual’s-- excuse me, WaMu’s ATMs are forced to be desperately cool, too:

Read the whole blog entry at Annie Barrett’s Diminishing Returns about the encounter with that ATM -- it’s piled on with snark.

It’s sorta sad, that ATM: it’s like a little monkey in pants forced to dance on a street corner for your amusement. Then again, it fits in with the performing-orca meme, so maybe that’s intentional. Maybe we’re meant to infer that WaMu is a bank that goes against its own banky nature to debase itself for your financial pleasure.