• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, January 19, 2010

When it comes to selling Candie's, it looks like Britney Spears has the touch. Kohl's and Iconix Brand Group, which owns Candie's, say they will extend their partnership with Spears throughout 2010 for the line of shoes and clothing.

It also seems that the blonde pop star is successfully putting even more distance between herself and her headline-grabbing 2007 meltdown (remember the shaved head, the custody questions, and weeping in the tattoo parlor?).

Such deals are also proof that to some degree, celebrity endorsements are more or less recession-proof. "We haven't seen much of a dip in the amount of deals our clients are doing with the celebrities in the last year," Matt Fleming, a director at Davie Brown, part of Omnicom's The Marketing Arm, tells Marketing Daily. "But they are being much more careful about the celebs they are going after, and paying much closer attention to image and conduct clauses in contracts."

Athletes -- think golfer Tiger Woods, NFL star Michael Vick or Olympian Michael Phelps -- are somewhat more vulnerable to scandals that might tarnish brands, he says, while marketers and the general public expect a certain amount of friskiness from its rock stars.

Still, compared to others in her celebrity group, a list that is topped by Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, Spears -- even with her comeback this year -- is near the bottom of the list. Only Ashlee Simpson and Amy Winehouse had lower overall scores on the Davie Brown index. (The index polls consumers about 2,000 celebrities, measuring awareness and appeal, as well as attributes like influence, trust, endorsement, and aspiration.

"Her awareness score is very high," he says, and she ranks relatively well in terms of her influence.

And plenty of people clearly love the Louisiana lass: "The Circus Starring Britney Spears" tour, sponsored by Kohl's, is said to be the #4 highest-grossing tour of 2009, bringing in a total of $83 million.

"We had such a successful year with Britney in 2009 that we wanted to keep the momentum going and offer our Candie's customers new, exciting campaigns with Britney in 2010," Iconix CMO Dari Marder says in its release, adding that the details of the new effort will be released next month.