A home for those who love almost everything about The Ticket (1310 AM, 96.7 FM, Dallas-Fort Worth), and who would like to discuss -- respectfully and fondly -- their thoughts on how (and whether) to eliminate the "almost."
Several years ago, I called upon Ticket management to stop running Kars4Kids ads. Of course, they should be banned for their aesthetic awfulness alone – Matt McClearin’s sing-along version (delightfully sarcastic) didn’t help – but my argument was that the ads were misleading. I mean, like, they didn’t actually identify, you know, a charity.
A little internet digging revealed that the money went to an organization that benefited a small (at least at the time) group Jewish students for a summer camp experience, as I recall. (I can’t find the article I wrote, so I may be misremembering what I found at the time.) Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong about it being a charity – but the ads left the impression that the assistance to kids would be to needy kids generally and did not disclose that the charitable benefit would be limited to a very ethnically/religiously narrow and geographically tiny group.
Now, a California court has put an end to the ads in California.
“After [the plaintiff made his junker] donation, he learned that the funds went to Oorah, a company dedicated to Jewish heritage and summer camps in New York and New Jersey. In a testimony that the judge described as ‘strikingly candid,’ the company's chief operating officer, Esti Landau, said her organization does not primarily focus on helping economically disadvantaged kids, according to court documents.
“She testified that Kars4Kids is the primary funding source for Oorah. She admitted that the donations funded "matchmaking programs" for young adults and trips to Israel for 17 and 18-year-olds, according to court documents. In her testimony, she added that the company spent $437,000 on Middle East outreach and used the funds to purchase a $16.5 million building in Israel.”
The charity can only run ads in California if it includes an "express, audible disclosure" of its religious affiliation, the geographic destination of its funds, and the true age range of its beneficiaries. Also: the ads may not feature children.
Pennsylvania, Texas, Oregon, and Minnesota have also taken action against Kars4Kids, but I think only Pennsylvania has imposed disclosure requirements.
I’m not sure how the prohibition would work in the case of a nationally-broadcast ad like the one currently running on the teevee featuring those not-very-Jewish-looking kids -- no 17- or-18 year-olds there -- pretending to play their pink instruments, or ads appearing on the internet.
But it will be easy to enforce with respect to local radio and TV ads.
Accordingly, I repeat my high-minded request that Ticket management no longer accept ads for Kars4Kids absent the kind of disclosures California now requires.
Several years ago, I called upon Ticket management to stop running Kars4Kids ads. Of course, they should be banned for their aesthetic awfulness alone – Matt McClearin’s sing-along version (delightfully sarcastic) didn’t help – but my argument was that the ads were misleading. I mean, like, they didn’t actually identify, you know, a charity.
ReplyDeleteA little internet digging revealed that the money went to an organization that benefited a small (at least at the time) group Jewish students for a summer camp experience, as I recall. (I can’t find the article I wrote, so I may be misremembering what I found at the time.) Nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong about it being a charity – but the ads left the impression that the assistance to kids would be to needy kids generally and did not disclose that the charitable benefit would be limited to a very ethnically/religiously narrow and geographically tiny group.
Now, a California court has put an end to the ads in California.
“After [the plaintiff made his junker] donation, he learned that the funds went to Oorah, a company dedicated to Jewish heritage and summer camps in New York and New Jersey. In a testimony that the judge described as ‘strikingly candid,’ the company's chief operating officer, Esti Landau, said her organization does not primarily focus on helping economically disadvantaged kids, according to court documents.
“She testified that Kars4Kids is the primary funding source for Oorah. She admitted that the donations funded "matchmaking programs" for young adults and trips to Israel for 17 and 18-year-olds, according to court documents. In her testimony, she added that the company spent $437,000 on Middle East outreach and used the funds to purchase a $16.5 million building in Israel.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/kars4kids-ads-banned-california-false-advertising/
The charity can only run ads in California if it includes an "express, audible disclosure" of its religious affiliation, the geographic destination of its funds, and the true age range of its beneficiaries. Also: the ads may not feature children.
Pennsylvania, Texas, Oregon, and Minnesota have also taken action against Kars4Kids, but I think only Pennsylvania has imposed disclosure requirements.
I’m not sure how the prohibition would work in the case of a nationally-broadcast ad like the one currently running on the teevee featuring those not-very-Jewish-looking kids -- no 17- or-18 year-olds there -- pretending to play their pink instruments, or ads appearing on the internet.
But it will be easy to enforce with respect to local radio and TV ads.
Accordingly, I repeat my high-minded request that Ticket management no longer accept ads for Kars4Kids absent the kind of disclosures California now requires.