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Jollying The Downtrodden Masses Through Bleak Times

Products that make folks smile are flying off the assembly line, Bruce Horovitz reports, though it's apparently too early to tell whether they're succeeding. The manufacturers aren't cheesy novelty operators. We're talking Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Denny's, and Frito-Lay, which this week is introducing Cheetos the size of ping-pong balls.

"People are looking for anything to break the negativity," says Ann Mukherjee, marketing guru at Frito-Lay, which, at one point considered -- but junked -- the idea of Cheetos the size of tennis balls.

The products are targeted to adults, by the way. "When we're stressed, we revert back to the things that comforted us as kids," says Howard Papush, aka Dr. Play, who consults companies on engaging employees with play. And so we have Pancake Puppies -- doughnut hole-sized pancake appetizers served in sundae cups -- from Denny's; straw-shaped Oreo Fun Stix that can be used to drink milk from Kraft; and P&G's Cover Girl Outlast Lipstain, which is shaped like a marker pen, among other fun-laden offerings.

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