Original photo by Brett Sayles/ Pexels
If you saw a Jeep with a rubber duck on its dashboard, you probably wouldn’t think anything of it — until you saw several other Jeeps with ducks on their dashboards, too. This quirky, quacky tradition, known as “Jeep ducking” or “Duck Duck Jeep,” started with one friendly Jeep owner placing a rubber duck on another Jeep. Like the “Jeep wave,” in which Jeep owners acknowledge one another on the road by waving with two or four fingers, the “Jeep ducking” tradition quickly caught on among Jeep fans.
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It's a factSince 1997, Jeep has incorporated hidden design elements into its vehicles, including silhouettes of the brand’s iconic vehicle and grille, Morse code, animals, maps, and even a spider with a speech bubble that reads, “Ciao, Baby!”
The tradition was started in July 2020 by a Canadian Jeep owner named Allison Parliament. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Parliament wanted to leave a note for the fellow owner of a Jeep Wrangler, but she didn’t have any paper on hand. She did, however, have a rubber duck. So she wrote a cheerful note — “Nice Jeep, have a great day” — on the duck, and placed it on the Jeep. When the Jeep’s owner caught her leaving the duck, he suggested they take a picture and post it on social media. The hashtag #DuckDuckJeep soon went viral as media outlets reached out to interview the woman behind the kind gesture, and the publicity spurred other Jeep owners to start exchanging ducks. Parliament’s spontaneous act of kindness started a trend that quickly spread throughout Canada and the United States, as well as dozens of other countries, including Australia, China, and India. Parliament passed away on June 22, 2024, but her joyful and spontaneous tradition lives on, continuing to connect Jeep enthusiasts worldwide.
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______ is known as “Rubber City” because of its long history of rubber and tire manufacturing.
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Akron, Ohio, is known as “Rubber City” because of its long history of rubber and tire manufacturing.
Rubber ducks were originally chew toys.
In the mid-19th century, Charles Goodyear’s innovative process of vulcanization made it possible to strengthen and waterproof rubber, transforming not only the automotive industry, but the toy industry as well. Toy manufacturers began producing a variety of rubber toys in different shapes, including the original rubber duck. But the first rubber ducks didn’t float, because they were made of solid rubber and intended as children’s chew toys. It wasn’t until the 1940s that Russian American sculptor Peter Ganine patented a design for an “uncapsizable duck,” which sold in the millions. His design evolved into the vinyl version of the classic yellow duckie we know today.
Kristina is a coffee-fueled writer living happily ever after with her family in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia.
