The TV commercial announcing Macy's 150th Birthday Sale brought a flood of local advertising memories to the brain.

“;Inspiring oohs, aahs and wows for 150 years. That's the magic of Macy's,”; the announcer says. The cheery spot was crafted by the legendary JWT, formerly known as the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency.

Your columnist is not the only person who remembers the 1990s-era jingle, “;Ooo, aah, oh wow! Ala Moana.”;

“;Yeah, I got some calls on that,”; chuckled Dexter Suzuki, former marketing manager for Ala Moana Center, after the spot aired on TV.

“;Their wording is a little different ... still, it's almost the same thing.”;

Local Macy's folks had nothing to do with the spot or the anniversary promotion. “;It was really the brainchild of the corporate office,”; said Lavina Wong, director of special events for Macy's Hawaii.

“;I think it is probably just a coincidence.”;

“; We have gone from this small entity into a national brand that has created and inspired oohs, aahs and wows”; beyond the much-anticipated parades and window displays launching the Christmas shopping season.

Ala Moana's “;Ooo, aah, oh wow!”; campaign started with its ad agency, Starr Seigle Communications Inc., for a single Fourth of July fireworks show, Suzuki said.

It showed “;a father and son looking at fireworks saying 'Ooo, aah, oh wow!' and it was a great local campaign so we incorporated (it) as a corporate campaign,”; Suzuki said.

Then-Starr Seigle Creative Director David Koch placed its start at the early- to mid-1990s and agreed with Suzuki that it ran for four to five years.

The short jingle was extended to 30- and 60-second versions, with lyrics scrolling across the screen. The video can be seen on YouTube online.

“;At the time, we had opened up a lot of high-end brands and some of the local people were kind of put off by that, so we wanted to make sure we didn't lose touch with the local market,”; Suzuki said.

Hence the “;oh wow,”; as in, “;oh wow, li'dat”; or, “;oh wow, lau lau.”;

It's doubtful JWT folks speak pidgin, and Starr Seigle didn't invent ooh, aah, or oh wow.

“;You can't own those - they're not even words, are they?”; said Koch, now executive vice president and creative director of Laird Christianson Advertising.

“;Nobody can own them. We probably could have trademarked them, but advertising is fleeting, as you know,”; Koch said.

Although, as evidenced by the calls to Suzuki and the jingle retained in your columnist's surviving brain cells, advertising can also be enduring.

Bet lots of kamaaina still can sing the Exchange Orangeade jingle.