Zagnut
 | |
 | |
| Product type | Confectionery |
|---|---|
| Owner | The Hershey Company |
| Country | USA |
| 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 butter and toasted coconut, and it weighs 1.75 ounces (50 g).
Unlike many other 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: "That is without a doubt the lousiest name for a candy bar I've ever heard!" In the end, though, 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 1982 action comedy 47 Hours (film), Jack gives Reggie a Zagnut for dinner after Reggie was complaining he wanted a nice meal in a nice restaurant.
- In the 1988 comedy film Beetlejuice, Betelgeuse uses a Zagnut bar to lure a fly to him. When the fly gets close enough, he viciously grabs it, pulls it into his lair and quickly devours it, after tossing the candy bar aside.
- Referenced in the episode 'Ogi Jun' of The Killing (US Series), said by Holder in reference to bribing a man in jail for information.
- On "My name is Earl" season three, "My name is inmate 28301-016" episode, in prison Sonny tells Earl that he took a candy bar from a maniac inmate that is expecting a Zagnut bar in return, and Sonny is worried if they make it anymore.
- In the 1988 comedy The Great Outdoors Chet lures a black bear on the hood of his car with a Zagnut.
See also
- Chick-O-Stick, another candy based on peanuts and coconut
References
- ^ "Zagnut Commercial". YouTube. 2010-09-08. Retrieved 2012-02-26.