Paul McCartney performs on Saturday Night Live as fans all say the same thing<\/a><\/p>\nThe judge ultimately determined that this lack of detail amounted to a problem. By not clearly explaining its mission in the ads themselves, Apkarian found that the organization\u2019s messaging was \u201cmisleading by omission.\u201d She ruled that Kars4Kids had engaged in false advertising and violated California\u2019s unfair competition law.<\/p>\n
The case was brought by California retiree Bruce Puterbaugh, who donated his car to the organization after hearing the jingle. He later challenged the ads, arguing they did not accurately reflect how donations are used.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very pleased that the court found, after a five-day trial, that the organization\u2019s primary purpose is not to help economically disadvantaged children and permanently enjoined Kars4Kids from continuing to use the ad in its present form,\u201d Puterbaugh\u2019s attorneys, Anthony Graham and Neal Roberts, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe result of this trial is that the people of California will now be protected from a deceptive and misleading advertising campaign that leads \u2019thousands of California donors \u2026 to surrender property under the false impression that they are supporting local, secular, or underprivileged kids,\u201d they continued. \u201cThis constitutes a massive, ongoing transfer of assets based on a fraudulent omission. This fraudulent and deceptive campaign has now been put to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the ruling, Apkarian pointed to additional testimony from Landau, noting that Kars4Kids\u2019 primary function is not to help economically disadvantaged children and that it does not operate \u201cfunctional programs\u201d in California. Instead, the organization primarily raises money for Oorah, a separate group focused on Jewish heritage programs and summer camps in New York and New Jersey. The court noted that Oorah receives about 25 percent of its revenue from California donors.<\/p>\n
According to the decision, Oorah has also directed funds internationally, including transfers to North Africa and the Middle East, as part of efforts to expand programs tied to Israel. These include organizing \u201cgap-year\u201d trips for teenagers and supporting matchmaking services for young adults.<\/p>\n
\u201cHad the Defendant disclosed that the donation would benefit a religious organization in New York\/New Jersey and Israel rather than needy children in California, the Plaintiff would not have surrendered the vehicle,\u201d Apkarian wrote. \u201cThe interest of the state in preventing consumer fraud far outweighs the Defendant\u2019s interest in maintaining a \u2018memorable\u2019 but deceptive jingle.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Kars4Kids\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_the_mirror_191\/7b605b0bca2dcd6a5bd4d3a64a026fd7.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The ruling claimed Kars4Kids was misleading -Credit:Youtube<\/p>\n
The ruling does not permanently bar Kars4Kids from advertising in California, but it sets clear conditions. Any future commercials must include \u201can express, audible disclosure of its religious affiliation and the geographic location of its primary beneficiaries and the age of the beneficiaries, specifying whether they aim for children or families, or both.\u201d The court also ordered the organization to pay Puterbaugh $250, reflecting the value of the 2001 Volvo XC he donated.<\/p>\n
Kars4Kids responded to the decision in a statement, pushing back on the court\u2019s conclusions. \u201cWe believe this decision is deeply flawed, ignores the facts, and misapplies the law,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cIt\u2019s well known that we are a Jewish organization, and our website makes it abundantly clear.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organization defended its work, adding, \u201cFor 30 years, we\u2019ve made it easy to donate an old car to benefit kids and families across the country through our sister charity Oorah. We\u2019re helping thousands of kids with youth development with our 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 the trial. Like many youth-serving organizations, helping children often means engaging parents and families as well, and continuing support through young adulthood. This holistic approach allows our programs to be more effective at sustaining lasting impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kars4Kids also addressed the lawsuit itself, stating, \u201cOur ads appeal to people with a car to dispose, offering a quick and easy way to give it to charity instead of the junkyard. We believe this case was nothing more than a lawyer-driven attempt to siphon off charitable funds for their own gain. We expect to win on appeal because the law and the facts are clearly on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nonprofit with a widely recognized soundtrack is facing a setback after a California judge ruled its ads…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97632,132841,7,9,8,133719,53863,132965,133718,132844],"class_list":["post-320564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ads","tag-bruce-puterbaugh","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-car-donation","tag-false-advertising","tag-gassia-apkarian","tag-jewish-organization","tag-kars4kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320564","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=320564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}