CHEYENNE - This mudflap girl turned a few heads.

The Wyoming State Library has conducted other targeted marketing efforts, but none has taken on a life of its own like the "library mudflap girl."

Launched in the fall of 2007, the six-month campaign featured the silhouette of a nude woman reading a book - a toned-down variation of the image commonly seen on truck mudflaps.

The campaign cost less than $3,000 and involved sending mudflap girl stickers and posters to mechanic's shops, auto parts stores and libraries around the state, said Tina Lackey, the library's marketing manager.

The goal was to let men who work on cars know about the state's online database of Chilton auto repair manuals. The database is accessible for free to anyone with a Wyoming library card.

"It was a way to market to a new demographic from what we usually see or who usually uses the library," Lackey said.

Library officials say the campaign succeeded. Yet it drew complaints from critics who said the library shouldn't objectify women in its promotional materials.

Mary Kay Wardlaw, a nutrition and health educator in Laramie, said she appreciated the effort at creativity, but found the use of the female image inappropriate. Wardlaw, who submitted a complaint the library, said she's worked to promote acceptance of different body types.

"People do unhealthy things to try to look like those images that are portrayed," Wardlaw said. "It's hard enough when we know these images are used to sell alcohol and things that are marketed to adults, but to be selling a library just seemed to be a point where I wanted to stand up and say I don't think that's right."

Lackey said the State Library received lots of feedback, good and bad.

Goshen County Library Director Isabel Hoy distributed the mudflap girl materials to local auto shops. She said she also showed shop workers how to access the database. The campaign resulted in a slight increase in the number of men who visited the library to apply for a card, she said.

"It definitely hit that target audience," Hoy said. "The target audience was very well defined and the material was constructed in a tasteful way to appeal to that male audience."

Wyoming State Librarian Lesley Boughton said she never considered pulling the campaign, despite the controversy.

"During the whole time it was being developed, I kept thinking, `Is this a good idea?"' she said. "I always had to focus on [whether] it met the intent.

Meanwhile, the library's mudflap girl T-shirts and other paraphernalia continue to sell online, and the topic still pops up in blogs and at library conventions.

"I was just up in Toronto doing a presentation to the Ontario Federation of Public Libraries and had dozens of requests for the material," Boughton said.