There has been significant discussion over food and beverage advertising targeted at children, particularly through the medium of television.  This journal article entitled, Prevalence of Food and Beverage Brands in Movies: 1996-2005 by Pediatrics, Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, provides a baseline for the analysis of food and beverage product placement in popular movies.

The research supporting the article examines the top 20 US box office movie hits for each year from 1996 to 2005 and finds that 69% of the films contained at least one food, beverage or food retail establishment brand.   The paper explores the data unearthed by the supporting research and the relevance of these findings as it pertains to nutrition, health  and diet.

This benchmark study can be found here.