What's Up With Jeep Ducks?

Have you ever seen a rubber duck perched on a Jeep, or maybe a flock of them sitting on the dashboard, and wondered what it was doing there? Whether you’re a Jeep enthusiast or just curious, read on to learn how “Jeep Ducking” started and why getting “ducked” is a compliment!

In July 2020, Allison Parliament had recently moved to a new town and purchased a Jeep Wrangler. After a tough day, she was out shopping and spotted another Jeep Wrangler in the parking lot of the store. Wanting to spread a little positivity, she took out a marker and wrote “Nice Jeep” on a rubber duck she’d just purchased, and she left it on the vehicle for the owner to find. As she was finishing up, the owner of the vehicle – who she described as a “burly, scary-looking, 6-foot-5 guy” – asked what she was doing. She showed him the duck, and he loved it! He told Allison she should post it on social media.

She posted the photo that day, and her unique act of kindness spread like wildfire under the hashtag #duckduckjeep. People started buying rubber ducks and leaving them on Jeeps across the nation, inspiring a fun tradition among Jeep owners and enthusiasts alike. Soon, people were buying ducks in different colors, ducks of different sizes, ducks in outfits – all with the intention of giving them away to make someone else smile. And as people collected them, Jeep drivers displayed them on their dashboard - in what's now lovingly known as a "duck pond."

Jeep couldn’t help but notice, and in 2022, they inflated the world’s largest rubber duck (61 feet tall!) at the North American International Auto Show in honor of the “Duck Duck  Jeep” movement. People loved the giant duck, too, and now it’s been to over 25 locations – a big feat for a duck that weighs over 8,000 pounds.

Today, new Jeep owners look forward to both getting their first duck and giving their first duck away, although anybody can participate. And while other trends inspired by Jeep Ducks have popped up (“Buck Buck Bronco” and “Yoda Yoda Toyota”), it’s true that only Jeep fans could’ve turned such a simple act of kindness into an international phenomenon that’s still going strong years later.

So next time you see a dashboard full of ducks, know that each duck represents a Jeep owner on a mission to spread positivity, kindness, and a few laughs, too.