(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) It is widely considered to be one of the most annoying — and effective — commercial jingles of all time.
Three decades later, the original child performers in the ubiquitous Kars4Kids jingle, written in the mid- to late-1990s, are all now approaching middle-age. And yet, the commercial’s staying power may have as much to do with the confusing lack of context as with the insipid earworm of a song.
It raises more questions than it answers, most notable among them: Why would someone donate a perfectly good car, and to what end?
That question appeared to be answered in a May 8 ruling by California Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian, who determined that the nonprofit’s parent company, Lakewood, N.J.-based Oorah Inc., had violated the state’s laws regarding false advertising and unfair competition.
“The public interest is served by transparency in the ‘charity marketplace,’” she wrote.
“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.”
The case was first brought in 2021 by Orange County resident Bruce Puterbaugh, who said he had donated his vehicle under the belief that it would benefit underprivileged children.
Instead, those donations benefited Orthodox Jewish outreach programs including a summer camp in upstate New York, a young adult “matchmaking” program, mission trips for 17- and 18-year-olds to Israel, and a $16.5-million building purchase in Israel, as well as $437,000 vaguely earmarked for “Middle East outreach,” the New York Post reported.
“The failure to disclose that funds benefit adults and families — and that this support is contingent upon a specific religious affiliation — is a material omission,” Apkarian wrote in her ruling. “A reasonable consumer donating to a ‘kids’ charity would attach importance to the fact that their donation is actually supporting adult matchmaking and general family subsidies.”
During the trial, Oorah CEO Esti Landau acknowledged that the organization’s reach in California was limited to a backpack drive, the primary purpose of which was a “branding exercise.” Nonetheless, an estimated $25% of the Kars4Kids revenue came from California.
The ruling effectively results in a ban on the insipid ads in California, unless the ads include an “express, audible disclosure” about where the funds go. It also bars them from using young children.
But like a cockroach weathering a nuclear winter, the setback is unlikely to keep Kars4Kids from continuing to air its commercials elsewhere.
The organization previously was fined in Pennsylvania and Oregon in 2009 for “misleading solicitation practices,” and even in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 frauds, an investigation by Attorney General Keith Ellison found that less than 1% of the $3 million that the state gave had gone to benefit children locally.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
