Talk:Washington Mutual

Their ads are racist

In all of Washington Mutual's commercials the members of the "banker's pen" are shown in contrast to the hip cool young guy, Bill. There are about 20 white bankers and everyone without exception is white. Bill is black. If there where just a few black or Asian in the bankers pen or Bill was white the ad would not be racist. But the implication here is that white men are boring and money-grubbing while blacks are hip, cool and generous. Numerous writers on the web back this up and have started a boycott.

From the article: "The bank's current television commercials emphasize the difference between Washington Mutual and other banks. A "Bankers Pen" urges increased fees and squeezing customers for every penny possible, while a younger spokesman, Bill, emphasizes friendliness over profits. Many bloggers have denounced the ads as racist since all banker's pen members are white while Bill, the younger, friendly spokesman, is black."

http://viewtank.blogspot.com/2006/03/washington-mutual-commercials-funny-or.html http://greensickle.com/2006/06/washington_mutual_advertising_1.html http://viewtank.blogspot.com/2006/03/washington-mutual-commercials-funny-or.html

--Jon in California 19 August 2007

Blogs are not reliable sources. See WP:RS. Furthermore, that perspective is original research and probably does not comply with the neutral point of view policy. See WP:NOR and WP:NPOV. --Coolcaesar 18:34, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, blogs are a source when I say, "blogs have denounced...". They would not be a source for a fact, unless that fact is that I claim blogs claim a certain thing. See the difference?

I wish I could find a more credible citation but there is no NAACP for white people. These ads are classic reverse racism and plenty of people agree with me. Too bad this other side of the argument can not be voiced in the wikipedia article. --Jon in California

You can find blogs that claim EVERYTHING under the sun... that's why they are not considered a valid source. FOr example i could start a blog (or more than one blog) that said "George W Bush has stinky feet" and then add to the GWB article that 'Blogs claim that George W Bush has stinky feet'

If this critisim or boycot is widespread it will be picked up by the 'real' media... Till it is it's not noteable enough to be included. harlock_jds 11:10, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Unexplained deletion of my photo by Citiman

I've put it back; the deletion was most impolite. In the future, please discuss here first before you go around deleting other people's photos, especially well-done ones. It's not like it was one of those bad photos shot on an overcast day or into the sun or something. --Coolcaesar 07:08, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Switch

Can anyone talk about why they switched from the usual Blue visa debit/credit cards to the Gold Mastercards? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.157.206.75 (talk) 15:20, 24 November 2006

The answer to that is Visa had a number of security problems earlier that year and Washington Mutual decided to switch to mastercard not only for security purposes, but to also bring a fresh look into the new Wamu Free Checking. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.60.226.100 (talk) 10:16, 6 December 2006

WAMU

Someone redirected WAMU (the radio station in Washington DC) to Washington Mutual. Initially this isn't a bad thing, since WAMU is Washington Mutual's NYSE code, but it's also the only name for the radio station, WAMU. I cannot access the radio station now. See my comments on the talk page for redirections and WAMU:

WAMU is the only name American University's radio station goes by. By redirecting that name exclusively to Washington Mutual, users cannot access the information they want, such as when I went looking for WAMU (the readio station) in Wikipedia. Denying users access to the information they seek does not make finding information any easier. Instead, it goes against Wikipedia's original aim, and any database's aim for that matter. In a Google search, WAMU as a radio station is displayed second, which suggests that at least by the standard of online bibliometrics, American University's radio station is reasonably well searched. At the very least, users should be directed to a page from which to choose their ultimate destination. Destitute 06:38, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

I just looked into Alexa.com, which measures web traffic, which is not a very good indicator of network analysis. Bibliometrics, the standard used for deciding the rank of webpages in an Internet search is a far better gauge of information control. Destitute 06:42, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

I would add too that WAMU is the 5th highest rated Public Radio Station in the country, as well as the higest rated shows in DC [1]. What's more, the person deleted the radio station article altogether! Destitute 07:02, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Is this an ad?

I'm not going to go through and edit right now, but the tone of parts of this article strike me as if they were written by the WaMu public relations staff. It talks about how unique and friendly the "Occasio" branches are. It claims that people across the United States are excited that the company is calling itself WaMu. It touts the advantages of their free chacking.

I think this could probably use some work. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Not my leg (talk • contribs) 19:33, 8 January 2007 (UTC).

Amen to that Sagittarian Milky Way 21:50, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

i chopped out the bit about people being excited about the name change to wamu since it was uncited and silly.Harlock jds 01:43, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

This entire article seems pretty generous to "WAMU". For example, there's no mention of the current trouble they're in for manipulating prices in the wake of the mortgage crisis.

find articles/reports about the trouble and add it. as long as it's cited it's no problem. -- harlock_jds (talk) 19:49, 16 November 2007 (UTC)