'Duck Wars' goes from viral TikTok to every day business at a Pittsburgh engineering firm
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Civil engineering is serious stuff but at one local engineering company, "Duck Wars" is creating some fowl play. At Gateway Engineers in Robinson, a simple prank turned into a viral sensation.
Alana Nulph has now been dubbed the CEO of Duck-Tok!
"I blew up a little bit on TikTok."
It started as a secret gesture of cute good luck. Alana had a friend in college who would give out mini rubber ducks as a good luck charm. So Alana thought it would be fun to place some of them secretly around the office at Gateway Engineers.
"As I was walking past someone's desk, I would just place it and keep walking," Nulph told me.
But little did she know, this hatched into a battle with the actual CEO of the company, Jason Jesso.
Gateway Engineers is a full-service civil engineering company, rooted in Pittsburgh for 75 years. They've worked on almost every corner of Western PA, including the University of Pittsburgh, Kennywood, Phipps, and PNC Park to name a few landmarks.
But make no quack about it, Gateway Engineers is now also home to duck wars.
Nulph said things started to pick up after someone approached her after two big ducks were brought into the office. It wasn't her and her response: "Who thinks they can out-duck me?!"
Turns out it was her boss.
"No one knew I did this. I just sort of placed them just to see if I could bring the person out a bit and see who it was," Jesso revealed.
The battle began.
Jesso told us, "She brought in, has to be four foot by four foot, inflatable duck, okay, well played. I see where this is going."
By this point, the two were on to each other. Hundreds of ducks have been brought in. There was a war theme, ducks roasting over a fake fire, and rubber ducks placed all over desks and the office.
"I love the engineers' expressions, walking right past around it, eh, it's a normal Tuesday," Jesso said.
The response has been huge, with Jesso telling us that his LinkedIn has exploded.
He knows why.
"We have a culture of work hard, play hard. We service our clients the best we can but we really want to have fun while we're doing it."