Zu Zu Ginger Snaps were round drop cookies produced beginning in 1901 by National Biscuit Company (NBC) – later changed to Nabisco – until the early 1980s. The snaps were "a spicy combination of ginger and sugar-cane molasses" and came in a distinctive yellow box with reddish type.
The mascot was the Zu Zu Clown. The Clown became central to an advertising campaign which included ads, signs, free clown costumes for children and two sizes of clown dolls.
Origin of Name
In Out of the Cracker Barrel by William Cahn (a book commissioned by the National Biscuit Company), the name of the product is said to have possibly originated from a character in the play Forbidden Fruit by Dion Boucicault. Adolphus Green, NBC's first chairman, supposedly saw the play and adapted the name of the character "Zulu."
According to Laura Wattenberg in her book The Baby Name Wizard, the name ZuZu "comes from Zuzana, a Czech/Slovak form of Susana."