by Matt Konkle
Managing Editor
Editor's Note: Allison Parliament sadly passed away last June. However, her memory lives on with each duck displayed on a Jeep's dash, or with each one left for someone to find. Today is National Rubber Duck Day, so we revisit just how the whole thing started.
They seem to be everywhere these days, preening on all kinds of Jeeps — Wrangler, CJ, Willys, Gladiator, or even Compass and Grand Cherokee. Little rubber ducks of all colors and sizes.
Often, they appear on a side step or fender. Sometimes on bumpers, rear tire carriers, mirrors or simply even the vehicle’s hood. From there, they are usually transported for display on the vehicle’s dashboard when recipients wish to show off their new acquisition.
And while most accept these small toys, there are some out there whose reactions can run anywhere from annoyance to outrage — a bit ironic since the whole thing started a few years ago because one person wanted to soar above anger and unpleasantness.
So what is the actual story behind these things? How did it start, and why did it become such a global thing with scores of millions of search results on social media, and just about as many styles, colors and types of ducks.
Well, the first thing to realize is it has nothing to do with Jeep itself. It’s not a corporate publicity thing, some kind of anniversary promotion or celebration of a new model.
No, it happened simply from one random event.
Back in 2020, Allison Parliament was driving from Alabama to visit her cousin in Bancroft, Ontario during the earlier stages of COVID-19.
Rubber ducks were the last thing on her mind when she pulled off the road to put some fuel into her 2018 Wrangler Sahara at a rest stop.
While there, Parliament said someone spotted her Alabama license plate and took offense, saying she was just a ‘dirty’ American and only wanted to spread COVID to hurt people.
”It was very scary,” Parliament said when Quadratec met up with her during a Jeep event. “He put his hands on me and knocked me back into my Jeep.”
Bruised and shaken, Parliament quickly sped off and safely reached her destination, but spent the next few weeks unable to leave the house.
Finally, she and a friend went on a weekend trip to visit extended family. While there, they visited a general store that, among other things, was selling bags of rubber ducks. So she bought a bag with the intention of hiding ducks around the house with little notes to hopefully make her friend laugh.
”Well, it ended up that when I walked into the store, I had a permanent marker in my pocket because I always do, so I decided to write ‘Nice Jeep’ on one of the ducks, because there was a really nice one outside and I thought ‘what the heck, I might as well make someone else laugh’,” Parliament said. “It turns out that the gentleman who got the duck saw me put it on his Jeep, and came over saying ‘Whatcha doing?’ In any case, he cracked up and said ‘This is amazing, we need to put this on social media’.”
So she did, hashtagging it as ‘DuckDuckJeep’ and said within a few hours there were 2,000 followers. After 10 days, there were 10,000 followers.
”Now it’s morphed into this huge thing,” she said. “Rather than focus on hate and stupid, we wanted to focus on kindness.”
And focus most people did with these ducks, posting cute pictures from all over the world — sharing nice interactions and personal connections in parking lots, Jeep events, off-road trail rides, and just everyday activities. The whole process becoming more a symbol of camaraderie and kindness, than just the simple act of placing ducks on a Jeep.
But for Parliament, the adventure didn’t just stop with ducks. The organization she founded, ‘Official Ducking Jeep Est2000’, is exclusively recognized by Jeep and these days has more than 77k followers on Facebook. Jim Morrison, then the Head of Jeep Brand in North America, even gave the movement a nod during the national rollout of the company’s 392 Wrangler. She attends plenty of events throughout the year as well, spreading the ducking movement and interacting with tons of supporters.
The ducking rules are pretty simple. If you have a duck and see a Jeep you like, and want to spread a little fun, then go ahead. Just make sure to put it in a prominent place where the owner will immediately see the thing.
"There really are not any strict rules about how to duck someone's Jeep, but the idea is to keep the act within polite and noninvasive gestures," Parliament said. “You don't really need a reason for Jeep ducking other than to connect, bring a smile to someone's face, and have fun."
She added that appropriate spots on a Jeep to duck someone are on top of the side mirrors or door handles, the front bumper, the front of the engine hood, or on the front fenders.
These things aren’t just for Jeeps, either, as Parliament said “Everybody needs kindness.”
“We don’t know what each other is dealing with in each other’s lives,” she said. “We could walk a mile in someone else’s shoes and never understand. So kindness goes a long way, no matter what you’re going through.”
