In my previous post, I launched a contest to come up with ideas on how to save newspapers — and more specifically, professional journalism. My probably Quixotic effort is called the "Saving Private Newspapers" Business Model Contest.

So far I have received a few good ideas (thanks, Athena!), with most of them coming in conversations off this site. I appreciate all the great thinking. Please keep submitting your recommendations on this blog and to me directly. There has got to be a workable, sustainable business model to keep newspapers and journalism alive. Here is a recent article on the subject from The Economist magazine.

On a completely different but favorite subject — the damage that major corporations frequently and inadvertently inflict on their own brands — Ad Age had an interesting piece today on the legal battle that P&G had been waging in the UK to try to keep Pringles from being labeled potato crisps (chips here in the US). Seems that if they are potato crisps (rather than mysterious crisp-like thingeys in a can), then Pringles are subject to a 15% VAT tax.

P&G apparently lost the legal fight and will now have to pay millions in taxes to the British Government on the UK sales of Pringles, which are now officially labeled as potato crisps in the land of Bangers and Mash and Bobble and Squeak (don’t ask what that is!). However, that’s not even the brand damaging part.

Since P&G’s legal challenge was very public — and Pringles have a devoted following, many of whom sing the product’s praises online and in social networks — the dirty little secrets of the legal proceedings leaked out. Apparently, in arguing that Pringles are indeed NOT potato crisps (most decidedly NOT), P&G divulged what is actually in the things: less than 50% potatoes, with the rest being wheat and corn flour, fat (lots of it), emulsifiers and spices. Some wags even said, incorrectly, that Pringles include sawdust and ground up newspapers in them.(Now there’s a potential use for all those old newspapers!)

Speaking of ground up non food stuffs in food, did you know that ground coffee has a small and legally permissable amount of ground up insects in it, including roaches? Yep, it’s in there and it’s perfectly allowable under FDA rules. Seems the roaches get in the bags of coffee beans and are then ground up with the beans. Can’t really help it. Hey, it’s all protein!

P&G probalby should have just paid the darn UK taxes instead of waging a public battle to claim that their billion dollar brand of mystery crisps is made of not exactly the most appetizing stuff. But that has never stopped sales of the Pringles mega brand. People don’t seem to care what is in Pringles. In fact, I think many consumers take a perverse kind of pleasure in knowing Pringles are not really potatoes, and that they probably have a half life of a thousand years or so!

From a brand management standpoint, this Pringles case demonstrates the unintended consequences of letting the lawyers and bean counters run your brands. Terrible idea.

So, keep those "Saving Private Newspapers" ideas coming, gang. If P&G can make pots of money selling mystery crisps that they claim are not really potato-based, then we should be able to come up with an idea to save journalism.

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