

Pay Your Taxes or they'll find you... Pennsylvania Taxes Commercial - rcavezza
http://www.infowars.com/orwellian-big-brother-tax-collection-commercial-airs-in-pennsylvania/

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spking
Ironic that they're using taxpayer money to do an Orwellian media buy telling
taxpayers they know where they live.

Reminds me of the 1985 film "Brazil" by Terry Gilliam. Which, by the way, if
you haven't seen yet you should rent it this weekend.

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tptacek
They're spending taxpayer money to get the word out that they're incentivizing
paying back taxes right now. The idea is to _make money_ from running the ads,
alongside the incentives, by reducing enforcement costs.

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tptacek
It's hard for me to get too upset about this. The tone is off-putting. But,
uh, they're right. They do know where you are. They do know how much you owe.
They will ding you for not paying. You are better off paying now.

I think they thought this was funny. I get why it isn't. But if I lived in PA,
I'd probably overlook that in exchange for amnesty on penalties and half off
my interest, which is what the ad is offering.

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spking
Imagine for a moment that a private enterprise did something similar. Let's
say that AT&T decided it would be funny to run an ad similar to this targeting
their delinquent customers. Imagine the (totally appropriate) outrage that
would ensue.

It's great that the state is offering penalty amnesty, but this was just a
terrible way to do it. Were I a PA resident, I'd be incensed.

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tptacek
There's a huge difference between a commercial creditor in line to collect
debts from you for payment of services and your obligation as a citizen to pay
taxes.

AT&T in fact does _not_ know where you are (or, at least, has no inherent
right to). AT&T in fact cannot force you to pay. AT&T's recourse for
nonpayment is to report you to credit agencies so that businesses working in
concert with them can stop extending you credit.

It is in fact a crime to evade taxes. The government has significantly more
recourse than AT&T does. Whatever a commercial says or doesn't say, whatever
you may think about it, if you owe taxes, you're going to end up paying them.
If you've never been in tax trouble before, know that the states are much
meaner than the IRS --- pay them first.

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spking
My point is that Government should follow the same unwritten rules of decency
and good taste in their marketing communications. Just because they know where
you live and can put you in jail doesn't make it cool to run TV ads telling
you so.

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starkfist
I don't think it's reasonable to expect much good taste from Pennsylvania.

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chaosmachine
And don't forget to buy a TV license.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NmdUcmLFkw>

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rcavezza
Not only is this really creepy, but the timing is terrible with all the
Facebook privacy concerns...

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blueben
Good intentions, horrifically bad judgment in marketing message.

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jasonlbaptiste
It's all about delivery. There's probably a better way to go about this and
get the desired effect across.

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CamperBob
Wow. I saw this a few days ago on another site and thought it was a joke. Did
they just hire the GlaDOS voice actress and shift her down an octave?

