How a Dissatisfied Man and His 2001 Volvo Led to the Ban of the Kars4Kids Jingle

      Kars4Kids

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      Jingle prohibited in California. A judge determined that Kars4Kids advertisements were misleading due to a lack of disclosure regarding their religious affiliation.

      Misleading claims by the charity. The organization finances religious programs rather than aiding underprivileged children as suggested.

      Donor dissatisfaction. Bruce Puterbaugh felt deceived when his car donation supported a Northeast religious mission.

      Legal consequences. Kars4Kids must revise its advertisements to include complete disclosures or refrain from broadcasting in California.

      If you've ever come across the catchy “1-8-7-7-KARS-4-KIDS” jingle, you've likely heard it countless times. In the states where this car-donation charity operates, its annoyingly repetitive ads featuring singing children have been aired for decades with the intensity of a military operation. However, following many years of operation, one dissatisfied donor took legal action, leading a judge to ban Kars4Kids from California airwaves for engaging in “an actionable strategy of deception.”

      Since Kars4Kids primarily operates in coastal states in the U.S., I'll provide a link to the jingle for those unfamiliar with it. (During our discussion in the newsroom this morning, my colleagues from Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, and Minnesota hadn’t heard of it.) Of course, anyone with a SiriusXM subscription has probably been subjected to the song as well.

      The Kars4Kids jingle has its own dedicated website where, if you want to put yourself through that experience, you can listen to various versions.

      While the song may be undeniably irritating, that isn't the reason it's been removed from the airwaves. According to reports from the New York Times, ABC7, and other sources: “Judge Gassia Apkarian of the Superior Court of California, in Orange County, found that Kars4Kids’s advertisements breached the state’s laws against false advertising and unfair competition.”

      More specifically, the judge took issue with the absence of disclosures regarding Kars4Kids's religious affiliation in their ads.

      As mentioned in the court ruling, the crux of the issue is that the "Kars" were not "4 Kids" at all. Kars4Kids's own COO Esti Landau testified that the organization does “not operate any functional programs” for helping children in California. The funds primarily support Oorah, an organization dedicated to Jewish heritage and summer camps in New York and New Jersey.

      “Ms. Landau explicitly testified that the organization’s main purpose is not to assist economically disadvantaged children. She mentioned that Oorah's programs include ‘matchmaking’ for young adults and 'gap year' trips to Israel for 17- and 18-year-olds (with an average of 250 participants each year).”

      So, while funding gap-year religious programs for 18-year-olds is perfectly valid, it diverges significantly from the "underprivileged kids" the advertisements suggest are being helped by your 200,000-mile trade-in.

      The connection between Kars4Kids and Israel isn’t a newfound revelation—simple research reveals the association between Kars4Kids and Oorah. However, this link is not made apparent in the advertisements, which is at the heart of plaintiff Bruce Puterbaugh's concern (yes, we are finally returning to the old Volvo). The court ruling describes his vehicle as a “2001 Volvo XC”; I suspect they mean a Volvo V70 XC (the higher-riding wagon model) since the XC90 was not released that year.

      “After donating the car, he learned from a neighbor that the proceeds would go to a Jewish organization based in the Northeast. Mr. Puterbaugh expressed he felt 'taken advantage of,'” as noted by the New York Times.

      You might as well get the full details from the court ruling:

      “The Plaintiff recounted that he was repeatedly exposed to the Kars4Kids radio ‘jingle’ (‘over and over’). The jingle played in court several times was the TV version, featuring several children aged 8-10 playing various musical instruments, with the jingle repeated at least four times. The brief and repetitious ad contains the following lyrics:

      1-877-Kars4KidsK-A-R-S Kars for Kids1-877-Kars4KidsDonate your car today.

      “Plaintiff testified that as a ‘charitable person,’ he relied on the advertisement’s auditory message to conclude that the organization benefited ‘underprivileged kids from all over the U.S.,’ particularly kids in California since he was donating the vehicle in that state. The Plaintiff donated a 2001 Volvo XC, valued at $250. He stated he felt ‘taken advantage of’ upon discovering—only after the donation—that the funds did not remain in California but instead supported a specific religious mission in the Northeast.

      The Court concludes