That was the headline on page 8 of the copy of USA Today I picked up to read on my flight back from Paris last week. (Partly because I like U.S newspapers and entirely because it was the only one written in English). It was a very interesting/weird article about how product makers are combating our economic woes by producing cheerful stuff that will make us smile. And there followed a whole host of wonderful food product innovations that could only really have come from America. By far the oddest and therefore most exciting came from Frito-lay’s Cheetos division (now there’s a specialist career), which was launching Cheetos the size of ping-pong balls. Why?

Because “People are looking at anything to break the negativity” said Ann Mukherjee, in the article, which described her as Marketing guru at Frito-lay.
“We even considered at one point making them the size of tennis balls.”
It was at this point that I checked the date in the top left hand corner of the paper. Wednesday April 1st.
O.K. nice joke. Giant Cheetos the size of ping-pong balls, as if. Then today I checked online and of course it’s true. As you’ll see here on this blog dedicated to junk food, the debate raged on about the story’s authenticity until people started posting the evidence. Including a TV ad for the product.
I feel happier already. When they start selling them here I be ecstatic.