Jeep owners have embraced the wave of participation in “ducking” the cars of fellow Jeep owners. A small act of kindness that began in 2020, has waddled over from Canada and expanded throughout the 50 states, according to an article by Parade.
The movement, which began with a simple post on Facebook in 2020, has since gained 89,000 followers and continues to grow, according to the Duck Duck Jeep Facebook page. Pepperdine students said their Jeeps have been ducked on and off campus.
“The surfer duck is my favorite because it’s so mellow,” junior Liam Zieg said. “I thought it was funny because I got ducked in Columbus, Ohio.”
Driving around Pepperdine’s campus, it’s hard not to notice the little yellow rubber duckies basking in the sunlight on students’ dashboards. There are a variety of ducks: spotted ducks, football-themed ducks, sock monkey ducks — and the list goes on.
One may already be familiar with the informal greeting known as the “Jeep Wave,” where Jeep owners wave to one another in passing. Being ducked is a newer tradition. Zieg said his excitement over the “Jeep Wave” and ducking inspired his decision to buy a Jeep.
Duck, Duck Jeep began when a woman named Allison Parliament placed the first yellow rubber duck on the door handle of a Jeep in Ontario Canada, in 2020, according to an article from Reader’s Digest. The duck was sporting a tag that read, “Nice Jeep!” The ducking enthusiast club got its start when Parliament posted on Facebook a photo of her ducking a Jeep.
Within his first week of becoming a Jeep owner, Zieg said he purchased a 25-pack of yellow rubber ducks from Amazon. He got straight to work ducking every Jeep he saw, beginning in Columbus, Ohio.
The secret to success in getting ducked, Zieg said, is large parking lots.
Last weekend, sophomore Christina Carroll said she was in Agoura Hills when she walked out of a nail salon and was surprised to have found a mini green gift tucked in her door handle. She was startled until she realized it was a green rubber duck.
The duck wore a tag rubber banded around its neck that read, “You’ve been ducked.” The tag encouraged Carroll to post it to her social media, she said.
Carroll said she had never heard of ducking prior to this experience. She followed the hashtag — #duckingjeeps — written on the tag and found so many posts of people sharing their ducking surprise.
While at Trader Joe’s, Zieg met celebrity Trisha Paytas, a YouTuber, singer and media personality, in the parking lot.
“Wait, she drove the Jeep and not the Rolls Royce,” Zieg said to his friend with him that day. “I’m gonna give her a duck.”
Zieg said he gifted Paytas with a little rubber duckie. Paytas told Zieg she had no idea about the tradition and asked if she was supposed to pass it along. Zieg explained to her that anyone who receives a duck can pass it on, or they can keep it.
“I was like, ‘Come on, Trisha, keep it,'” Zieg said.
Junior Marla Steel said she learned about ducking Jeeps from her cousin while on a summer vacation in Nantucket. Her cousin was excited about purchasing a rubber duck in Nantucket to gift to one of her high school friends in New Jersey, Steel said.
When Steel arrived back in Malibu, she said she was working at Vuori in the Malibu Country Mart when she found a rubber duck surprise in the handle of her Jeep. The duck was wearing a tag that said, “You’ve been ducked.”
“I didn’t pass it on because I thought the duck was too cute,” Steel said.
Simple acts of kindness and making people feel welcome where they are — that is what ducking Jeeps represents, according to a Parade article.
“I think it brings people together in that way, and it makes you feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, someone thought about me,'” Steel said.
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Email Rachel Flynn: rachel.flynn@pepperdine.edu
