The authority figure telling you it is so "because I say so", the mimicry of the news values of credibility, importance and newness, and the heightened sense of urgency and call to action remain the reasons why South African companies keep co-opting and using the traditional news anchor and the milieu of the news anchor desk as the setting for their TV commercials.
Two South African cellular companies, Cell C as well as MTN, are running concurrent TV advert marketing campaigns using news anchor characters talking about their services.
While the news anchor desk setting isn't new as a TV trope, the way the anchor desk is projected is keeping up with the times and incorporating subtle changes.
They now come complete with rolling "news" scrolls, and where the backdrop in the background used to be static, it's now often filled with people or working people (as both these ads are), helping to aid the illusion of supposed greater "transparency" in a post-modernistic world.
The news anchor's rigid formalism - symbolised through their formal attire - is getting more relaxed (self-evident in the growing absence of the traditional tie which is forsaken for an open collar or bow-tie).
Blue (red is the other colour but interestingly not employed in this case by either Cell C or MTN - possibly since their competitor Vodacom is red) still remains the symbolic best tone from the colour palette to convey breaking news in the real world (and in mock adverts) when the news needs to be underscored with a sense of lofty yet authoritative credibility.
