Britney Spears became a pop culture icon immediately after launching her recording career. Rolling Stone magazine wrote: “One of the most controversial and successful female vocalists of the 21st century, she spearheaded the rise of post-millennial teen pop … Spears early on cultivated a mixture of innocence and experience that broke the bank.” She is listed by the Guinness World Records as having the “Best-selling album by a teenage solo artist” for her debut album …Baby One More Time which sold over thirteen million copies in the United States. Melissa Ruggieri of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, “She’s also marked for being the best-selling teenage artist. Before she turned 20 in 2001, Spears sold more than 37 million albums worldwide“. Britney Spears has been Yahoo!’s most popular search term for the last four consecutive years, seven times in total. Spears was named as Most Searched Person in the Guinness World Records book edition 2007 and 2009. People magazine and MTV reported that last October 1, 2008, Bronx’s John Philip Sousa Middle School, named their music studio in honor of Britney Spears. Spears herself was present during the ceremony and donated $10,000 dollars to the school’s music program.
Britney Spears’ products and endorsements consists of a multi-million dollar promotional deal with Pepsi that included television commercials, point-of-purchase promotions, and Internet ties between Spears and the company in 2001. Britney Spears has earned over US$370 million from her many, multi-million dollar advertisement and endorsement deals all around the World. She has published four books, including A Mother’s Gift, and released seven DVDs, including her self-produced 2005 reality series Britney & Kevin: Chaotic. Other Spears products include a doll and a video game. She endorsed Elizabeth Arden fragrances: “Curious” in 2004, which had $100 million in sales in the five weeks after its 2004 release, “Fantasy” in September 2005, “Curious: In Control” and “Midnight Fantasy” in 2006, “Believe” in September 2007, “Curious Heart” in January 2008 and “Hidden Fantasy” in January 2009. On March 2, 2009 it was announced that Spears would be the new face of Candie’s.