The most unexpected Christmas advert this year

Christmas adverts are supposed to embody the perfect Christmas. It's why we see so many featuring happy, smiling families, coming together to share gifts and spend quality time together. One advert this year, however, is celebrating the exact opposite.

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Insurer SunLife asked people over the age of 50 about their perfect Christmas, and a significant number of them said they'd love to ditch the kids and the grandchildren, and have some fun on their own for Christmas

More than a quarter (28%) would prefer not to spend time with their family over Christmas. Of these, over a third would either like to spend it at home with their partner, or to pop round to a friend for Christmas lunch. Meanwhile more than one in 20 said they'd quite like to skip the country altogether for the festive period and enjoy Christmas abroad.

It's a perfectly understandable sentiment, because for every grandparent who cannot wait to see the happy smiling faces of their grandchildren on Christmas, there are others who wouldn't mind a Christmas morning that didn't have to begin at an ungodly hour. They could live without the tears over who got a better present, the tantrums over who gets to play their computer game first, and the inevitable rows over who was cheating at Monopoly.

And for every grandparent who sees this as their opportunity to experience the joy of Christmas through a child's eyes again, there are those who had quite enough of that as parents, and would quite like to experience the joy of Christmas themselves.

Ian Atkinson head of brand at SunLife said: "We've done a lot of research into the lifestyles of people over 50 and again and again we're hearing how, in their 50s, 60s and 70s, people feel freer to do what they want, when they want. They're not afraid to enjoy themselves and they're comfortable in their own skin."

The advert is meant to reflect these sentiments, and what more appropriate approach could there possibly be than the one they opted for? Their Christmas advert featured a group over-50s naturists settling down for Christmas lunch.

Ian added: "For too long, people over 50 have been stereotyped in advertising – so this Christmas we wanted to nakedly show their true spirit. And our research shows: while the majority of people over 50 want their family come over for Christmas lunch, there are plenty who just want to do their own thing and let it all hang out."

It's certainly a memorable advert. The question is whether it would encourage you to buy a product from them.