Court bans Kars4Kids ads in California for violating false advertising law

An Orange County judge has banned all Kars4Kids ads, including the earworm of a jingle, from broadcasting in the state of California after finding that the charity violated false advertising and unfair competition state laws.

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The famous, or infamous, ad — best known locally for frequently playing throughout the day during KNBR commercial breaks — has been the subject of much scrutiny due to the lack of transparency regarding the organization’s religious affiliation and the fact that the money does not really go to “kids.”

In a case that dates back to 2021, Bruce Puterbaugh originally sued the charity’s affiliated organization, Oorah Inc., when he discovered that the money from the car he donated ($250) was not going to underprivileged kids in California but rather to an Orthodox Jewish program in New York and New Jersey. Puterbaugh told the court that he donated the car because he had heard the famous Kars4Kids jingle “over and over,” according to the certified court order published May 8. The TV ad in particular, featuring a multiracial group of kids playing instruments along to the tune, is what made Puterbaugh think the money would go to underprivileged kids, and the fact that he donated the car in California is what led him to believe the money would stay in-state.

Kars4Kids Chief Operating Officer Esti Landau testified that the charity’s “primary function” was to fund Oorah, which is dedicated to Jewish heritage summer camps in New York and New Jersey, per the court order. She also said that while 25% of the charity’s revenue comes from California, there are no programs in the state that benefit from Kars4Kids beyond a backpack drive “characterized as a branding exercise.”

Kids in need aren’t even really the target of the organization’s financial efforts. Instead, those go to 17- and 18-year-olds seeking gap-year trips to Israel and their families. Landau testified that $16.5 million even went to purchasing a building in Israel in 2022, and $437,000 was spent on “Middle East outreach.”

Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian found that the ads constituted false advertising because the commercials were “misleading by omission” since none of the information above was properly disclosed. While prospective donors could find this information online, the court order stated that the “primary call to action” was the phone number in the jingle. The court ruled that unfair competition laws were violated because “the harm of soliciting donations through intentional omissions outweighs any purported utility.”

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“The public interest is served by transparency in the ‘charity marketplace,’” the order reads. “When a charity generates millions annually through a ‘jingle’ that conceals its primary religious and geographic focus, it creates an unfair playing field for local California charities that are honest about their missions. An injunction ensures that competition for charitable dollars is based on truth, not catchy, content-free, deceptive songs.”

Kars4Kids ads are now banned in the state until there’s “an express, audible disclosure” of the charity’s religious affiliation, the region of where the money goes and a more accurate age range of the recipients. The organization also can’t use young kids in its ads anymore. (You may still hear the jingle for a few weeks, though, as the court gave Kars4Kids a 30-day window to get its noncompliant advertisement off California airwaves.)

California is not the only state to have ruled about Kars4Kids. In 2009, Pennsylvania and Oregon fined the charity for “misleading solicitation practices,” and an investigation by Minnesota’s attorney general in 2017 found that less than 1% of the $3 million donated in state went to local children.