The catchy Kars4Kids jingle — which has been referenced on Saturday Night Live several times through the years — was recently pulled from airwaves in California for false advertising.
For years, the jingle (“1-877-Kars4Kids/K-A-R-S Kars for Kids/1-877-Kars4Kids/Donate your car today”) has been heard on the radio and on TV. Last week, however, the earworm was ordered to be removed from broadcast after a California court ruled in favor of a man named Bruce Puterbaugh, The Guardian reported. He filed a lawsuit against Kars4Kids in 2021, after donating his non-working 2001 Volvo XC, valued at $250, to the charity.
Puterbaugh said he believed the car donation would benefit “underprivileged kids from all over the US,” per a document from the Orange County superior court. He later learned that Kars4Kids funds a Jewish non-profit, Oorah, which runs summer camps and coordinates gap-year trips to Israel for recent high school graduates. Additionally, Oorah used $16.5 million from Kars4Kids to purchase a building in Israel.
Kars4Kids was ordered to pay $250 in restitution, in addition to “ceas[ing] all non-compliant broadcasting in California” within 30 days.
“Money cannot ‘un-donate’ a car or restore the donor’s belief that they were helping a local, needy child,” the court 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.”
In 2014, the jingle was humorously referenced during an SNL cold open titled “Charlie RoseCold Open.” The psychologists behind torture techniques outlined in a CIA report claimed they were also behind the earworm.
And in a 2017 sketch titled “Bank Breakers,” SNL again referenced Kars4Kids when a game show contestant promised to donate his old jackets and jeans to the charity.
Additionally, a 2021 sketch titled “Audacity in Advertising Awards” name-dropped the jingle. “Up next, a performance from Renée Fleming of the music from 1-877-Kars-4-Kids,” an announcer for the fake awards show teased.
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