Who: Enercare, with Giants & Gentlemen.

What: “Who owns who?” is a new campaign promoting the company’s heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical protection plans.

When & Where: The three videos went live this week, complementing out-of-home and digital programmatic elements that launched late last year.

Why: The program is intended to inspire people to sign-up for one of the Enercare Protection Plans.

How: Each 15-second spot, “3 AM,”  “Heirlooms” and “Oven,” show a homeowner at the mercy of their home, pleading with inanimate objects like pipes, ovens and heaters not to turn on them at the worst time. In one spot, water pipes inform a man they’re going to enjoy ruining his expensive record collection, while in another a furnace delights in telling a woman that it’s going to break down at 3 a.m. on the coldest night of the year.

While the ads are exaggerated for comedic effect, they depict very real scenarios faced by homeowners, (as someone who spent all of Christmas and Boxing Day with no heat or hot water a few years ago because of a broken water heater, I can attest to this).

“We so often have a love/hate relationship with our home,” said Giants & Gentlemen co-founder and chief creative officer Natalie Armata. “It provides comfort and refuge, but on the other hand, it can turn on you by breaking down at the most inopportune times. It seems to have a mind of its own.”

And we quote: “You never know when things will break down. As a homeowner, Enercare’s Protection Plans reduce the stress that comes with that uncertainty and the potential cost that comes with it as well.” — Angela LaFosse, vice-president of marketing, product development and franchise sales and operations, Enercare