Duck That Jeep, Or How World’s Largest Rubber Duck Came to Represent Jeep at NAIAS 2022

Roll into Detroit this month for the 2022 edition of NAIAS (North American International Auto Show), and the first thing you’ll see even before you get near the Huntington Place convention center is a giant, bright yellow rubber duck. Its presence there is not some kind of practical joke or a farce, and it’s not there as a sign of protest either: the duck is Jeep’s duck, and it’s the most awesome and lovable tribute to the community of Jeep owners.

First things first, the duck in question, which measures 61 feet (18.6 meters) in height, is 69 feet (21 meters) wide and 79 feet (24 meters) deep and weighs more than 8,000 pounds (3,629 kg) on land. It is the property of Inflatable Images from Scherba Industries, owned by Craig Samborski, and it’s aptly named Mama Duck.

Mama Duck can float, but it’s best if it stays on dry land because, this way, people have the chance to get as close to it as they want, Samborski tells The Detroit News. Mama Duck is trademarked as the “world’s biggest rubber duck” and is, as of the Detroit Auto Show, Jeep’s duck.

So what does Jeep have to do with a yellow inflatable rubber duck? It all goes back to something called “ducking” or “Jeep ducking,” which you will find on social media under the hashtag #duckduckjeep. It’s not a new trend, having first emerged in July 2020; by viral trend standards, which see them live and die in a matter of hours, it’s positively ancient.

It all started with Allison Parliament, a former financial consultant who had just treated herself to her dream car, a 2018 Jeep Wrangler Sahara JKU, on a day when she wished things would have been better. Coming out to the parking lot, she saw another Jeep that she liked and, having just bought a bag of rubber duckies that she planned to plant in her best friend’s home as a prank, she put one on the car’s windshield, scribbling the message “Nice Jeep” on the bottom. As she was doing that, the owner came out and, naturally, asked her what she was doing.

The two struck a conversation, and the other Jeep owner suggested she take a photo to post to Twitter. He found the entire thing hilarious: walking out to see someone put a yellow rubber duck on his car, as some kind of silly token of appreciation. Parliament did post the photo online, and two years later, Jeep is fully embracing ducking. Jeep has shown its support before, as have BFGoodrich Tires and RTX Wheels, local coffee shops, and a large, international community of Jeep owners.

Today, there’s an official Duck Duck Jeep movement, a Ducking for Teacher nonprofit, various other nonprofits and charities that raise money for a wide array of causes, and an official Facebook group with over 60,000 members and a presence in 63 countries. Parliament tells The Detroit News that, so far, she must’ve handed out over 27,000 ducks, which means there are over 27,000 Jeep owners who walked up to their car and found a lovely surprise there. Her Jeep now goes by the name Quack Attack, and it carries some 1,000 rubber duckies at any given moment.

Ducking is a way to celebrate the culture of the Jeep brand, a way to bond and to make sure you make someone’s day better. “If you get caught, you make a new friend,” Parliament says.

Thad Szott, president of the show’s organizer, Detroit Automobile Dealers Association, says that Mama Duck has proved a hit with audiences, more so than expected. It makes Jeep more relatable and brings that fun vibe of a festival, which is hardly common for an auto show. Jeep will be handing out ducks at the show, and duck merchandise will be available for purchase.

“It was the tie into the Jeep brand and creating the festival-type atmosphere, creating excitement for the kids, and the new reimaged show,” Szott says of the duck’s popularity. “Everybody loves the duck.”

If you spend as little as two minutes on the #duckduckjeep thread, you’ll see that no one loves the duck more than those who get ducked.