Zagnut
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|---|---|
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| 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 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 feature film 48 Hours police detective Nick Nolte takes convict Eddie Murphy out to dinner only to offer him a Zagnut candy bar.
In the 1980 film Seems Like Old Times, Chevy Chase's character Nick wants Milk Duds from the vending machine but when he determines the machine is out he settles for a Zagnut.
The candy bar is featured in the 1988 feature film Beetlejuice and is included in the 2008 feature Hancock.
Approximately 37 minutes into the 1988 film, The Great Outdoors (film), John Candy's character, Chet, offers several Zagnut candy bars to a couple of foraging bears.
The Tom Sloan cartoon "Trash Not", on anewdomain.net features a Zagnut bar with the wrapper being sold as scrap for 12 cents a pound..
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.
External links
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