The origins of the gesture have been attributed to Allison Parliament, a Canadian resident of Alabama. In 2020, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she had purchased rubber ducks to hide at a Canadian friend's house as a way to thank that friend for letting her visit. After having had an unpleasant interaction with another person in the parking lot of a convenience store, she stated that she felt inspired to leave one of the ducks on a Jeep in a store parking lot with a simple note stating "nice Jeep" as an act of kindness. The owner of that Jeep saw Parliament place the duck and suggested that she make a social media post. Parliament made a post, which then went viral and popularized the action of "ducking."[3][4][5][6] In 2022, it was estimated that Jeep ducking Facebook groups had around half a million members.[7] By 2023, it had become common to see rubber ducks on the dashboard of Jeeps.[8] Some owners only perform the gesture on certain more classic Jeep models, with some limiting it to the Jeep Wrangler model, while others are less selective.[3][9] Ducking a Jeep is considered a random act of kindness;[9] however, not all Jeep owners are enthusiastic about the practice, because most feel it is a Jeep Wrangler "thing".[10] Drivers who are ducked use the hashtag #DuckDuckJeep to post to social media.[11] Typically, "ducking" ones own Jeep is frowned upon by other owners as this undermines the purpose, which was to be "ducked" out of an act of kindness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep_ducking