One of the biggest attractions at this year’s reborn Detroit auto show stemmed from a grassroots movement that began as a way to spread cheer among Jeep owners during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After watching the social media-fueled phenomenon known as “ducking” spread rapidly, Jeep embraced it by setting up the world’s largest rubber duck, a six-story bright yellow inflatable, outside the convention hall’s front entrance last month.
But Jeep, which collaborated with auto show organizers to bring the duck to Detroit and give it prime real estate, has no intention of ruining the trend by commercializing it, said Marissa Hunter, Stellantis’ senior vice president of marketing. The movement has spread organically among Jeep owners, a testament to the tight-knit nature of the off-road brand’s community, and will remain a movement that’s of the people, Hunter said.
“We’ve seen the sharing of the duck among the fans and the followers, and think that to let those Jeep lovers use it as a way to connect with one another, in a very sort of organic and authentic way, is the way it should continue to build and continue to generate more and more momentum,” Hunter told Automotive News, “versus us from a marketing perspective trying to take a very grassroots initiative and sort of overly commercialize it. We love the fact that the fans and followers are taking it upon themselves to do it amongst one another. It just gets that whole community spirit that is so powerful within the Jeep brand.”
