Annoyingly catchy Kars4Kids jingle gets new life thanks to court’s ruling

Love it or hate it, California listeners won’t be escaping the Kars4Kids jingle anytime soon.

A California appeals court has temporarily blocked a lower-court order that would have forced the charity to pull or overhaul its ads, allowing the commercials to keep airing while the legal fight plays out.

In a June 4 order, the Fourth Appellate District granted Kars4Kids’ petition for a writ of supersedeas and stayed an injunction issued by an Orange County judge.

The court ruled that the injunction and all other proceedings in the case will remain on hold pending resolution of the appeal or further order of the court.

The decision is a major win for Kars4Kids, whose catchy ads had been on the verge of disappearing from California airwaves after a judge found the organization misled donors about where their money was going.

“Kars4Kids applauds today’s court ruling allowing its ads to continue airing in California while the appeals process continues,” spokesperson Wendy Kirwan said in a statement to The California Post.

“Kars4Kids’ programs benefit a wide array of children and teenagers in California and beyond. The uninterrupted airing of its ads will enable the charity to continue funding its programs for children and families.”

The appeal stems from a May 8 ruling by Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian, who found that Kars4Kids violated California false advertising and unfair competition laws by failing to disclose that donations primarily fund Orthodox Jewish programs affiliated with Oorah Inc., a New York- and New Jersey-based outreach organization.

The lawsuit was filed by California resident Bruce Puterbaugh, who said he donated a vehicle after repeatedly hearing the charity’s advertisements and believed the proceeds would benefit underprivileged children in California.

According to the ruling, the $250 generated from his donated vehicle instead went to programs connected to Oorah.

During the trial, Kars4Kids chief operating officer Esti Landau testified that the organization’s “primary function” is funding Oorah’s programs.

The court found that although roughly 25% of Kars4Kids’ revenue comes from California, the organization has little meaningful programming in the state beyond a backpack giveaway that Apkarian described as a “branding exercise.”

The ruling also found that Kars4Kids funding was not primarily directed toward young children in need.

Instead, donations supported older teens, including 17- and 18-year-olds participating in gap-year trips to Israel and related family programming.

Testimony further showed that $16.5 million was spent in 2022 on the purchase of a building in Israel, while another $437,000 went toward “Middle East outreach.”

Apkarian concluded that the charity’s commercials were “misleading by omission” because they did not disclose the organization’s religious affiliation, where donated funds were spent or the ages of the people benefiting from its programs.

“The public interest is served by transparency in the ‘charity marketplace,'” the judge 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.”

Under the lower-court ruling, Kars4Kids would have been barred from airing commercials in California unless they included “an express, audible disclosure” explaining the charity’s religious affiliation, where donations go and who benefits from the funds.

The order also prohibited the use of young children in the ads.

For now, however, those restrictions are on hold.

“We believe the lower court’s findings on the facts and the law were deeply flawed, and we look forward to pursuing a broad appeal of that decision,” Kirwan said.

Kars4Kids, a Lakewood, New Jersey-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit, operates a vehicle donation program that funds educational and recreational programs for Jewish children and families, primarily through Oorah.

The charity has faced scrutiny over its fundraising practices before. Pennsylvania and Oregon fined Kars4Kids in 2009 for misleading solicitation practices, and a 2017 Minnesota attorney general investigation found that less than 1% of the $3 million donated in the state benefited local children.