Zagnut
 | |
 | |
| Product type | Confectionery |
|---|---|
| Owner | The Hershey Company |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1930 |
| Previous owners | |
| Website | Official Zagnut website |
Zagnut is a candy bar produced and sold in the United States. It was launched in 1930 by the D. L. Clark Company, which sold it to Leaf later on and acquired by The Hershey Company in 1996. Its main ingredients are peanut brittle with cocoa and toasted coconut, and it weighs 1.75 ounces (50 g).
History
Unlike many candy bars, it contains no chocolate, though it does have a small amount of cocoa. Since Zagnuts have no chocolate to melt, they have seen a resurgence in popularity among US troops in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Stateside, candy and convenience stores stock Zagnut unevenly, since it has only a niche market.
The origin of the name "Zagnut" is uncertain; the "nut" part presumably comes from either the coconut coating or the peanut center, while the "zag" could be a reference to zigzag, a slang phrase popular when the bar was created in the 1930s.
In the 1960s, Zagnut made fun of its unlikely name with a TV commercial created by Stan Freberg. In the spot, a candy-company exec (played by Frank Nelson) is horrified to discover a computer has given the name "Zagnut" to its newest product, and says, "That is without a doubt the lousiest name for a candy bar I've ever heard!" In the end, he is forced to keep the name since millions of Zagnut wrappers have already been printed. Freberg himself gives the tagline: "A Zagnut by any other name...would be a good thing."[1]
In popular culture
- In the movie Beetlejuice, the character Beetlejuice uses a Zagnut bar to lure a fly into a trap.
- John Candy's character Chet lures a bear to his vehicle in the 1988 film The Great Outdoors using a Zagnut bar.
- It was used by Will Smith in the 2008 movie Hancock as a weapon against robbers in a convenience store.
- In the film 48 Hrs., after Eddie Murphy's character Reggie complains that he is hungry and wants to eat dinner in a nice establishment, Nick Nolte's character Jack takes him to a vending machine and purchases a Zagnut bar.
In the Film "Seems Like Old Times" (1980), Chevy Chase breaks into a candy machine and the gas station attendant asks him if he wants a Zagnut. Chevy Chase says, "Zagnut's good. Zagnut".
See also
- Coconut candy
- Chick-O-Stick, another candy based on peanuts and coconut
References
- ↑ "Zagnut Commercial". YouTube. 2010-09-08. Retrieved 2012-02-26.