Political communication in South Africa after Rubicon: a trend towards professionalism?

As voters have become used to the sophisticated presentation of messages in other spheres, they expect a similar sophistication in political communication. This has opened the way for political advertising in addition to traditional modes of political communication. This paper examines political advertising in South Africa. It looks at political advertising in the Referendum '83 campaign, the communications disaster generally known as Rubicon 1 and the new approach for Rubicon II. It proposes the utilisation of professionals in the communications field to assist in the formulation of a national communications policy to promote more open and more effective government communication.