A lifeguard with a tail just became personal injury law's most unexpected pitchman.
Morgan & Morgan has released "Merman," the newest spot in its long-running "Power Move" campaign, and it may be the strangest one yet.
The ad opens at a public pool, where a lifeguard watches the water with total, effortless authority, until the camera reveals he's a merman.
When a woman appears to be struggling in the water, he dives in, cuts across the pool, and delivers her to safety with a well-timed dolphin call for good measure.
The spot ends on the campaign's now-familiar tagline: having a merman as your lifeguard is a power move, and hiring the country's largest injury law firm after an injury is one too.
Founder John Morgan credited the firm's in-house creative team for keeping the campaign feeling new.
"They consistently find ways to push the envelope and make every campaign feel fresh," he said, adding that "Merman" captures what makes the firm's advertising distinct.
Chief Creative Officer Carlos Wigle described the spot as a passion project for the team.
"We wanted to create something that would make people stop scrolling, lean in, and laugh," he said.
What Happens in the Water
"Merman" continues a "Power Move" tradition that showcases absurdly overqualified solutions to ordinary problems.
Earlier entries include an interrogation scene styled after crime dramas, featuring an owl, and a babysitting spot starring WWE's Liv Morgan.
The spot was directed by Dynamic Jewo and produced by The Change Machine, both part of an ongoing brand partnership with Morgan & Morgan's creative operation.
Visual effects came from Zoic Studios, which used its proprietary Hybrid AI workflow alongside Flame and Nuke finishing tools to refine each shot before delivery.
It's a practice that has grown common in ad product design for effects-heavy commercials on tighter timelines.
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"Merman" will run nationally throughout 2026 across broadcast, digital, audio, and out-of-home placements.
The Comedy Behind 'Power Move'
Morgan & Morgan's willingness to get silly isn't incidental.
According to the American Tort Reform Association, it was the top legal advertiser in the country in 2024.
Additionally, it spent an estimated $218 million and accounted for 8% of all legal services ads that year.
Needless to say, it's a category that keeps getting louder.
Morgan & Morgan's comedic run stands apart precisely because it refuses that formula:
- Recognition beats repetition in saturated categories: When every competitor runs the same injury-ad formula, an odd visual gag cuts through fast.
- A consistent joke structure builds brand memory: The tagline format lets audiences predict the punchline, which makes each new spot easier to recall.
- Big budgets buy room to take creative risks: Firms without the same media weight may need a sharper, cheaper hook.
While most of its competitors are sticking to earnest, direct-to-camera pitches, Morgan & Morgan takes a different route.
Because funny sells confidence just as well as being serious.
Our Take: How Can a Merman Sell Legal Services?
Injury law is a business built on people's worst days, so most firms advertise like it: grim, urgent, a lawyer staring into the camera promising to fight for you.
Morgan & Morgan figured out the opposite works better.
The whole game here is that jokes do the job better than somber pitches because it gets the ad talked about, screenshotted, sent to a group chat.
All in all, humor isn't a departure from the pitch, but a delivery mechanism Morgan & Morgan utilized well.
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