Judge Banishes Notorious Kars4Kids Commercial From California Airwaves

"The Kars4Kids jingle has been around since the late 1990s, first used on radio commercials in New York City and then spreading to air in other markets like a national musical pandemic, ending up in TV ads starting in 2014 that featured children dressed in pink and black, awkwardly miming playing instruments and singing along."

"A 2015 Vice article declared the jingle to be universally loathed and as memorable as it is infuriating, and noted the aggressively violent responses it evoked in social media posts: To take a quick scan through mentions of Kars4Kids on Twitter, you'd get a glimpse into seemingly rational people being pushed to the darkest recesses of their psyches. They want to kill themselves. They want to kill the kids. They want to krash the kars. They want to krash the kars into the kids."

"It's even uglier in the comments section of YouTube, where nuance is notoriously thrown out the window. WORSE THAN EBOLA, said one commenter. I want to stick a knife into my ears, said another. The phrase ear cancer gets thrown around like candy. (Comments for the original jingle have been disabled, likely for the best.)"

"The nonprofit organization behind the eardrum-torturing theme has a spotty history, Vice music writer Dan Ozzi noted, including serious bad press and legal issues, critical assessments by charity watchdogs for its lack of transparency in its religious affiliations and for"

Kars4Kids uses a jingle that has circulated since the late 1990s, moving from radio in New York City to broader markets and then to television ads starting in 2014. The TV ads feature children dressed in pink and black miming instruments and singing along. The jingle has been widely parodied, including a 2014 Saturday Night Live sketch portraying CIA psychologists who take credit for the song. The jingle is described as universally loathed and as memorable in an infuriating way, provoking aggressive reactions on social media, including statements about self-harm and violence. The nonprofit behind the ads has a spotty history, with bad press, legal issues, and charity watchdog criticism for limited transparency about religious affiliations.

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