Although it was clearly a parody, not everyone was able to appreciate it. First the agency was reprimanded by the Ministry of Finance and after that by the Advertising Code Commission. The complaint with the Advertising Code Commission centered around article 11.1. This article determines that a mailing should be immediately recognizable as an advertisement. The recipient of the mail should be immediately able to see that it was an advertisement and not an official communication from the IRS. This was not the case. The color blue and the print “belastingdienst” which means IRS, was clearly copied from the official IRS envelope. Since the announcement that it is an advertisement is depicted too small on the envelope the advertisement is deemed in contravention with article 11.1 of the Dutch Advertising Code.
