Yahoo Autos The Jeep Ducking Trend's Founder Has Passed Away Suddenly
Sad news: Allison Parliament, founder of the world-famous Jeep ducking craze, has passed away unexpectedly on June 22nd. Her mother confirmed her death on her Facebook page on June 25th. Parliament's age when she passed was not listed, but a September 13, 2022 story in The Detroit News listed her as 34 years old at the time.
"Ducking," as it's often known, started as a simple act of kindness. Back in 2020, in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Parliament reportedly had a verbal and physical encounter with someone that left her shaken. Afterwards, she decided to spread a little happiness with a random act of kindness, so according to The Detroit News, she bought a little yellow rubber duck, wrote "Nice Jeep" on it and placed it on a Jeep similar to hers.
"The owner was this burly, scary-looking, 6-foot-5 guy, asking, 'What are you doing?'" Parliament said to the News. "But he was smiling. He thought it was great. He said it was the best thing to come up with and the world needs more of this."
This tiny, and innocent act of placing a toy duck on Jeeps took off like wildfire. (If you know anything about Jeep enthusiasts, you know they're a tight-knit community.) Pictures and stories of ducking began to spread on social media. Parliament then went on to begin DuckDuckJeep, an online community for people to share their stories of ducking; according to their official website, Jeeps have been ducked throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in China, Australia, India, and dozens of other countries.
The Official Ducking Jeep Facebook page was established in July of 2020, and currently has over 79,000 members. Parliament stated in the first rule on that page that it was “created to spread kindness, so please be kind.”
The movement reached its height of prominence in 2022, when the Detroit Auto Show promoted itself with the “world’s largest duck,” an inflatable rubber duckie which stood 61 feet tall and weighed over 8,000 pounds. The duck was placed outside next to the Jeep lineup, with fans and passers-by invited to snap pictures.
Jeep fans have been sending condolences out on social media and are also looking for ways to honor Parliament and the Jeep ducking trend that she began. So if you happen to have a rubber duck handy and see a Jeep today, it's a good day to make that Jeep's owner smile.
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