{"id":318234,"date":"2026-05-16T02:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T02:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/318234\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T02:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T02:30:13","slug":"the-kars4kids-jingle-is-in-trouble-in-california-heres-why-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/318234\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kars4Kids jingle is in trouble in California. Here’s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kars4Kids jingle<\/a> that has played for years on California radios and TVs may soon disappear unless the charity changes its tune.<\/p>\n

Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian ruled that Kars4Kids violated California’s false advertising and unfair competition laws by urging people to donate cars without clearly disclosing where the money goes.<\/p>\n

The ads, Apkarian found, left donors with the impression that proceeds broadly helped needy children, including children in California. In reality, the judge wrote, donations primarily support Oorah<\/a>, an Orthodox Jewish nonprofit whose programs include summer camps in New York and New Jersey, trips to Israel for older teens and services for Jewish families.<\/p>\n

Apkarian ordered Kars4Kids to stop airing noncompliant<\/a> ads in California within 30 days.\u00a0 Any future ads must include an audible disclosure of the charity’s religious affiliation, the geographic location of its primary beneficiaries and whether the programs are aimed at children, families or both.<\/p>\n

The ruling marks a significant legal setback for one of the country’s most recognizable charity campaigns, built around the relentlessly catchy “1-877-Kars4Kids” jingle and the call to “donate your car today.”<\/p>\n

The case was brought by Bruce Puterbaugh, a California man who donated a nonworking 2001 Volvo XC after hearing the ad “over and over,” according to the court’s ruling.<\/p>\n

Puterbaugh testified that he believed the donation would help underprivileged children around the country, including in California. He said he later felt “taken advantage of” after learning the proceeds supported a religious organization in the Northeast.<\/p>\n

The ads do not mention Oorah, Judaism, New York, New Jersey or programs for older teens and families.<\/p>\n

At trial, Kars4Kids Chief Operating Officer Esti Landau testified that the organization is a Jewish nonprofit and that more than 60% of its funds go to Oorah, according to the ruling.<\/p>\n

She also testified that Kars4Kids sends about $45 million a year to Oorah, spends about 30% of its funds on advertising and has no functional California programs beyond a backpack giveaway, the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

Apkarian said the ads were “misleading by omission” and found that Kars4Kids created the impression that donations helped a broad class of needy children, including children in California.<\/p>\n

Kars4Kids disputed the ruling.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the organization called the decision “deeply flawed,” said its website makes clear that it is a Jewish organization and said it helps “thousands of kids with youth development, mentoring and educational programs, including hundreds in the state of California.”<\/p>\n

The charity said it expects to win on appeal.<\/p>\n

Apkarian also ordered Kars4Kids to pay Puterbaugh $250, the court’s stated value of the donated Volvo.<\/p>\n

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This article originally published at The Kars4Kids jingle is in trouble in California. Here’s why<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kars4Kids jingle that has played for years on California radios and TVs may soon disappear unless the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[132917,7,9,8,132965,132844,132966,55670,132843],"class_list":["post-318234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-apkarian","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-gassia-apkarian","tag-kars4kids","tag-needy-children","tag-orange-county-superior-court","tag-underprivileged-children"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318234","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=318234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}