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The CBC will no longer carry ads for Kars4Kids — the long-running charity campaign featuring a familiar jingle inviting audiences to “donate your car today.”
The public broadcaster announced the move on Tuesday, days after a California court found the campaign amounted to a “strategy of deception.”
“In light of the developments regarding this charity, CBC has decided to pull their ads,” Chuck Thompson, a spokesperson for the Crown corporation, told CBC News in an email.
Earlier this month, Judge Gassia Apkarian of the Superior Court of California ruled the Kars4Kids ads — featuring children playing instruments and lip-syncing the earworm jingle — would be banned from being broadcast in the state until they contain “an express, audible disclosure” of the charity’s affiliation, and where proceeds go.
The decision stemmed from a 2021 lawsuit brought by Bruce Puterbaugh, a California cabinetmaker who donated a 2001 Volvo XC to the charity. Court documents say Puterbaugh was under the impression the charity helped “underprivileged kids from all over the U.S.”
It wasn’t until later that he learned the main purpose of Kars4Kids is actually to fund a Jewish organization called Oorah, based in New Jersey.
A California judge banned the airing of all Kars4Kids ads in the state over revelations the charity does not support local kids in need. Instead most money goes to Jewish organization Oorah that provides youth matchmaking services and gap year trips to Israel.
In her decision, Judge Apkarian noted Oorah’s programs include “matchmaking for young adults and gap year trips to Israel for 17 and 18-year-olds.”
“The name ‘Kars4Kids,’ the 8-10-year-old actors in the advertisement, and the repetitive jingle all serve to reinforce the belief that donations are used exclusively for the benefit of children,” Apkarian wrote.
“A reasonable consumer donating to a ‘kids’ charity would attach importance to the fact that their donation is actually supporting adult matchmaking and general family subsidies,” the judge said in her decision.
She described the jingle as “memorable but deceptive.”
In Canada, Oorah is listed as a registered charity with the federal revenue agency.
Canadian tax filings show the organization transferred $12.6 million to the U.S. and Israel in the fiscal year ending May 31, 2025 — the most recent data available — for projects such as the Texas Torah Institute and the Cincinnati Hebrew Day School.
Oorah’s Canada Revenue Agency filings show $19 million in expenditures in the 2024-25 fiscal year, including $3.7 million on advertising and promotion.
A Kars4Kids spokesperson did not respond to emailed questions about whether any of the proceeds raised in Canada go to help children in the country.
The 2024-25 CRA filings list no director for Oorah in Canada.
Kars4Kids’ Canadian headquarters is listed as a shared office space in downtown Toronto. The charity had no staff at the location when a reporter visited the address last week.
A receptionist said “no one is here, physically” and that Kars4Kids Canada is “only online.”
Kars4Kids says it helps ‘thousands of kids’
In a lengthy statement posted on its U.S. website following coverage of the California court decision, Kars4Kids described itself as an “apolitical Jewish IRS-recognized organization helping thousands of kids throughout the USA and Canada.”
Wendy Kirwan, Kars4Kids’ director of public relations, told CBC News last week, “we believe the [court] decision is deeply flawed, ignores the facts, and misapplies the law. Kars4Kids expects to win on appeal because the law and the facts are clearly on our side.”
Kirwan underlined “Kars4Kids Canada is a separate organization and not a party to this matter.”
The organization said in its online statement that funds raised go to support a variety of children’s programs, including summer camps, youth groups across the U.S. and tuition assistance for Jewish elementary and high school students.
“Additionally, Kars4Kids offers small grants to secular nonprofits focused on youth development, mentorship and education as well as public service announcements regarding car and child safety,” the charity’s statement said.
If you have a news tip related to this story, contact CBC News senior reporter Thomas Daigle by email: thomas.daigle@cbc.ca.
