- Johnny Knoxville stars in a new KFC PSA called "Finger Lickin' Fourth," tied to the Jackass: Best and Last film.
- The spot delivers firework safety tips with a comedic, "jackass" tone, directed by Jeff Tremaine.
- Campaign runs digitally and on social from June 27 through July 5, timed to the Fourth of July weekend.
- Created by agency Highdive, the ad ties KFC's "Finger Lickin' Good" slogan to real injury statistics from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Just in time for Fourth of July weekend, KFC has teamed up with Johnny Knoxville for a tongue-in-cheek public safety campaign called “Finger Lickin’ Fourth.”
The spot delivers five firework safety tips, aiming to get people to think twice before injuring a finger during one of the most dangerous holidays of the year for hands.
The campaign leans on data from the US Consumer Product & Safety Commission showing that one in three firework injuries affects fingers and hands. Since KFC built its brand on “Finger Lickin’ Good” chicken, the company decided to make the connection literal.
The PSA was created in partnership with the feature film Jackass: Best and Last, directed by Jeff Tremaine and produced by Highdive.
The long-form spot launched on Saturday, June 27, and runs through July 5 across paid digital and social channels in the U.S. Highdive’s executive creative directors, Steven Fogel and Doug Fallon, said the idea came from realizing the holiday’s odd overlap with finger safety, turning it into “a brand story only KFC could tell.”
This isn’t Knoxville’s first time blending stunt comedy with a brand message. The jackass franchise has long built its identity on outrageous, safety-adjacent humor, making him a natural fit for KFC’s cheeky approach.
This also follows a string of recent KFC marketing pushes, including the brand’s Kentucky Fried Comeback campaign earlier in 2025, which leaned on a more serious Colonel Sanders and free chicken bucket giveaways to win back customers.
KFC has a track record of pairing food promos with athletes and personalities, similar to how Lexie Hull recently partnered with KFC for a separate promotional push, or how Ice Spice fronted Wendy’s “Ice Spicy” campaign, both signs that fast food brands are increasingly turning to celebrity-driven, personality-first marketing around food holidays.
Takeaways
KFC’s willingness to poke fun at its own slogan shows brands are getting more comfortable using humor (even slightly dark humor) to deliver genuinely useful safety messaging.
Pairing a chicken brand with a stunt-comedy icon like Knoxville is an unconventional but memorable way to make a PSA actually get watched, rather than skipped.
Does pairing real safety stats with comedy help the message land, or risk undercutting it? Could this kind of campaign boost KFC’s relevance heading into the holiday weekend rush? Is Knoxville’s jackass-era brand becoming a go-to for offbeat corporate partnerships?
