San Francisco city officials have scrapped a splashy milk marketing campaign that outfitted the city's bus shelters with cookie-scented billboards.

"We got complaints," Municipal Transportation Agency spokeswoman Maggie Lynch said of the billboards. "It is controversial."

CBS Outdoor, the company that holds the advertising contract for the bus shelters, was ordered to remove the scented strips on Tuesday — just one day after they were installed as part of the California Milk Processor Board's "Got Milk?" campaign.

While the dairy producers were aiming to initiate a craving for milk, critics of the billboards said the scented oils used on the billboards might trigger an allergic reaction in some people.

The promotion was installed in five San Francisco bus shelters at a cost of about $30 US per shelter.

With files from the Associated Press