{"id":317856,"date":"2026-05-15T22:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/317856\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T22:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:00:14","slug":"the-kars4kids-earworm-ad-has-been-banned-in-california-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/317856\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kars4Kids earworm ad has been banned in California. Here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

A California judge has banned all ads for children\u2019s charity Kars4Kids in the state, including those containing an earworm jingle, on the grounds that it violated false advertising laws.<\/a><\/p>\n

Rather than helping \u201cunderprivileged children,\u201d money from the New Jersey-based charity was used to fund teenagers\u2019 trips to Israel <\/a>as well as construction of a building worth $16.5 million, according to a lawsuit filed in 2021.<\/p>\n

The suit was filed by Bruce Puterbaugh, who alleged that he had been \u201ctaken advantage of\u201d by the charity after donating his car.<\/p>\n

Puterbaugh said in his lawsuit, obtained by SFGATE,<\/a> that he had made the decision after hearing the Kars4Kids jingle \u201cover and over\u201d again on local radio.<\/a><\/p>\n

The catchy tune, which is infamous across the U.S., hears children singing the words \u201c1-877-Kars4Kids\/K-A-R-S Kars for Kids\/1-877-Kars4Kids\/Donate your car today,\u201d and has been played on radio stations for almost 20 years.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, Puterbaugh later learned that his car had not been donated to \u201cunderprivileged kids from all over the U.S.\u201d but that his money had gone to Oorah Inc. \u2013 a company funded by Kars4Kids.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A California judge has banned all ads for children\u2019s charity Kars4Kids in the state, including those containing an ear worm jingle, on the grounds that it violated false advertising laws (iStock)<\/p>\n

Oorah is a Jewish non-profit organization that helps run summer camps in the Tri-State area as well as organizing gap year trips to Israel for Jewish teenagers. Money from Kars4Kids was also used to buy a building for Oorah in Israel, reportedly worth $16.5 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel taken advantage of by the ad and information that was not there,\u201d Puterbaugh said in court testimony, according to SFGATE.<\/p>\n

Also testifying in court was Esti Landau, the organization\u2019s COO, who acknowledged that the infamous ad does not mention any religious affiliation or ties to the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

In a ruling published May 8, Judge Gassia Apkarian of the Superior Court of California, in Orange County, wrote: \u201cMoney cannot \u2018un-donate\u2019 a car or restore the donor\u2019s belief that they were helping a local, needy child.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a charity generates millions annually through a \u2018jingle\u2019 that conceals its primary religious and geographic focus, it creates an unfair playing field for local California charities that are honest about their missions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kars4Kids was ordered to pay $250 in restitution to Puterbaugh and has 30 days to \u201ccease all non-compliant broadcasting in California\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted Kars4Kids for comment.<\/p>\n

In a statement shared with The New York Times,<\/a> a spokesperson for the company said it would seek a stay of the ruling and appeal the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe this decision is deeply flawed, ignores the facts and misapplies the law,\u201d the statement read. \u201cIt\u2019s well known that we are a Jewish organization and our website makes it abundantly clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kars4Kids added that it helps \u201cthousands of kids with youth development, mentoring and educational programs, including hundreds in the state of California, contrary to the judge\u2019s complete mischaracterization of our work and of the testimony at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California judge has banned all ads for children\u2019s charity Kars4Kids in the state, including those containing an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[132841,7,9,8,132842,132844,132845,132843],"class_list":["post-317856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-bruce-puterbaugh","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-false-advertising-laws","tag-kars4kids","tag-puterbaugh","tag-underprivileged-children"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}