NHPTV "Underwriting" Message (Or Commercial?)

[Laurence Glavin]

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call while watching "Wall $treet
Week w. Fortune" on a Friday night on channel 2 in Boston.  No
problemo, I'll just catch the rerun on NH Public Television, channel
11 and view just the portion I missed.  But then I noticed a funny
thing: the "underwriting" message before the show for Northeast
Credit Union seemed awfully long and detailed for a public broadcasting
show.  So today (09/16) I taped the intro to "W$W w F" and then
copied down the text of what the channel  11 announcer said.
First of all, the message was slightlly longer than 20 seconds
total, and contained three visuals, while the following message
was aired:
"Let Northeast be your financial superhero, bringing you not only
the traditional services of a financial institution, but 
products like OUR quick-close home equity and GenGold checking.
Chances are you're eligible to be a member of Northeast.
Information is available at 1-888-436-1847."  (End of message;
I capitalized the word 'our'.)
This seemed rather lengthy and detailed for an underwriting
message, and the visuals (in slide format rather than
moving video) included more advertsing-style info like
the web address, and a youngster in a superhero outfit
reinforcing the "superhero" slogan for the firm.
The only thing it lacked was the guy from Empire
Carpet saying "and you get a free gift!" followed
by the Modernaires singing the phone number.  Wow...
this seemed to me to have all the earmarks of a traditional
commercial...from this description, do you think it
crossed over the line?

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