Deadheaded today... the new safety video played. It still has the "FLY" button at the end.

I've changed my opinion on this and am now absolutely against it... I was in civvies, and after the video ended I overheard two different pax, beside and behind me, say something to the effect that "Pilots are just bus drivers now, they pretty much only have to push a fly button and the autopilot does it all," which their companions agreed with. Then another person opined that with how automated planes were now, pilots were paid too much, and there were no disagreements.

After thinking about it, I've decided that in fact the fly button IS a demeaning joke at the expense of pilots; and there are NO OTHER jokes in the videos at the expense of any group of workers. The videos start off saying several times how hard working and professional the Delta workers are... Flight Attendants are shown maybe 30 times, always professionally and in a good light. Yet the ONLY time a pilot is shown in the videos, it's some mustachioed putz-looking guy who then turns and presses a "FLY" button. We're showing that video to EVERY passenger, every person who likely owns stock in the company and thus indirectly owns/controls our salaries via the board.

So, I've changed my mind on this--it's NOT harmless, it's a gradual and insidious degradation of respect for the profession. It's like telling rascist jokes then turning to those of the targeted race you just demeaned and saying, "Hey, lighten up man it's just a joke!", or patting a female pilot on the head and saying "How's my little lady-pilot doing today? Feeling up to hand flying the big stick with the boys?" or some such crap, and then claiming it was just light-hearted humor. It creates a culture of acceptance of demeaning behaviour, and sets an expectation in the minds of the listener that it's ok.

When our safety video shows rampers too lazy to jog over for a late inbound; flight attendants too fat to fit down the aisle without bumping all the pax; flight attendants hitting on the rich first class pax; managers working for 3 years at the company and talking on their cell phones about how they're taking us to bankruptcy and bailing with millions; and maintainers pencil whipping repairs and guessing about them instead of referencing TO data....
... when we make all THOSE jokes too, THEN it will be OK to make a light-hearted "just a little humor man, lighten up francis!" joke that pilots press a "FLY" button as part of our job.

They need to get those original videos off the planes and get the updated ones on ASAP. Other than that, the videos seemed to be received well, and I heard no other negative comments towards any Delta group.