Thanks for the response. I came across that post in my searches and I will still try the little gif animation yet, but I think I will stay away from pressing against the screen since this is clearly something recommended against in the manual. I don't want the cure to be worse than the disease.
I called NEC and they asked for some photos of the display. I also have a red particle spec beneath the surface so that in combination with the stuck pixel(s) may be enough for an exchange. Find out next week.
At first I was slightly underwhelmed by the monitor even though I was coming from a lowly 20" Apple Cinema Display, but after spending some time with it I'm starting to feel an appreciation for all that it has to offer. The pixel pitch takes some getting used to, text is a little mushy and the matte screen looks maybe a little too matte at times, but I feel like I am seeing details, color, contrast so much better now and the few prints I've run so far have been fairly accurate translations from the screen and less of an educated guess.