February 09th, 2010

The Mudflap Girl prefers reading a good book to hanging with truckers

The Wyoming State Library launched a campaign to inform local mechanics of an online database of repair manuals. Seems innocent enough. Well, they got pretty creative with their marketing.

They removed the iconic mudflap girl from the trucks, put a book in her hand and made this naked reading lady their spokesperson. They sent auto shops stickers and other items in order to get them to the library and guess what, it worked!

The campaign was not completely successful as many said it was sexist and not in good taste. We get that. But another way to look at it is taking a demeaning stereotypical image and turning it around. She’s not just a naked body hanging off a truck but a girl with a book promoting reading.

You can buy T-shirts, bumper stickers, hats and of course aprons with the reading mudflap girl.