Infamous Earworm Is Now Banned in California

That relentlessly catchy Kars4Kids tune is being silenced in California, at least in its current form. A state judge has ruled that the car-donation charity misled the public about where money from those donations actually goes, ordering the group to overhaul its advertising or get off the air, per SFGate. In a May 8 decision, Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian found that Kars4Kids violated California's false advertising and unfair competition laws by not clearly disclosing that its donations primarily support Orthodox Jewish outreach programs run by Oorah in New York and New Jersey.

A case against the company was originally brought in 2021 by California resident Bruce Puterbaugh. He donated a car after repeatedly hearing the jingle, which the Guardian notes has been around for nearly two decades, and believed he was helping disadvantaged kids in his own state. Instead, Puterbaugh later learned the $250 from his vehicle went to Oorah-linked programs focused on Jewish heritage, gap-year trips to Israel for older teens, and related initiatives, according to court documents.

Testimony showed that about a quarter of Kars4Kids' revenue comes from California, but the organization runs almost no substantial programs there beyond what the court described as a marketing-oriented backpack drive. Kars4Kids spent $16.5 million in 2022 on a building in Israel and hundreds of thousands more on "Middle East outreach," COO Esti Landau testified in court. The commercials, Apkarian wrote, were "misleading by omission," as they didn't make clear the group's religious nature, geographic focus, or the age range of those it serves.

Under the ruling in the latest case, which KRON4 notes is a result of a class action suit filed last fall, Kars4Kids has 30 days to pull any noncompliant ads from California airwaves. Going forward, its commercials in the state must include an "express, audible disclosure" explaining its religious affiliation and who benefits. The charity is also prohibited from featuring young children in its ads. Kars4Kids, a New Jersey-based 501(c)(3), has been scrutinized before: It was fined by Pennsylvania and Oregon in 2009 over solicitation practices, and a 2017 probe by Minnesota's attorney general discovered that less than 1% of the $3 million raised there aided local kids. Read the full statement from Kars4Kids, which calls the ruling "deeply flawed," here.