The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint by a London resident over Boeing’s claims in a recent advertisement that the new 787 Dreamliner, which is due to go into service later this year, will be “60% quieter than ever before”. (1) The ruling comes barely a week after British Airways announced that it had finalised an order for 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
The ASA ruled that the advertisement was untruthful and ‘likely to mislead’ because it would lead people to believe that there would be a 60% reduction in noise levels as the plane came overhead. In fact, there would only be a 3 decibel reduction in noise levels which is ‘barely perceptible’ to people on the ground. Boeing had based its claim that its new 787 would be 60% quieter than the existing Boeing 767 on the noise footprint of the aircraft. The ASA found that this was misleading.
We've already been told that the A category jet planes flying into LCA are quieter (compared to what we ask, a concorde, or a 737?) - strange how the decibels just keep going up as the noise contours widen out over swathes of South and East London. LCA mistakenly believed we were gullible.
