Women Be Shoppin' in the New Chevrolet Spark Commercial

The Chevrolet Spark — a “city car” with a “peppy engine” — is supposed to be all about “international attitude for urban living,” but in a new commercial, it appears to be for thin, fashion-y women who shop in Paris. Wait, does this car seriously come in pink?

As the spot opens, five women leave their color-coordinated homes and get into their color-coordinated Sparks. As their colorful cars “dance” through “Paris,” the backseats fill up with packages. Women be shoppin‘! Then they go for macarons. And guess what? The macarons match their cars and outfits! Plus, there’s a dog! And kids. Everything girls like. So many stereotypes, so little time. As Steve Hall writes for Ad Rants:

After all, we know fashion conscious women always choose their vehicle for its color and not its performance. And they obviously don’t know how to drive right either. And all they like to do all day long is shop. And eat chocolate.

This is not the first commercial for the Spark. There’s a more general ad, highlighting how small and fun the car is, and a European version has a woman driving the Spark right into her apartment. But the splashy new ad, targeted to women, really just seems to be about the cute colors. A quick visit to the official site reveals that although the Spark comes in Jalapeño, Denim, Lemonade and Salsa — the green, blue, yellow and red seen in the ad — pink is not actually an option. A couple of years ago, Chevy redesigned the Equinox to be more female-friendly. That one didn’t come in pink either.

I’d be lying if I said shopping in Paris in a candy-colored car didn’t sound super fun. Obviously this is supposed to tap into some kind of aspirational fantasy. But the reality is that women care about price, gas mileage, horsepower. Most of us have grown out of matchy matchy Barbie Dream Car. And even if we did have a fantasy in which our lives looked like a candy-coated color-coordinated music video, we’d probably something hotter than a Spark. Like a vintage Kharmann-Ghia maybe. Not in pink.