Succès de scandale

Succès de scandale is French for "success from scandal", i.e. when (part of) a success derives from a scandal.

It might seem contradictory that any kind of success might follow from scandal, but scandal attracts attention, and this attention (whether gossip or bad press or any other kind) is sometimes the beginning of notoriety and/or other successes. Today, the often-used cynical phrase, "no such thing as bad publicity" is indicative of the extent to which "success by scandal" is a part of modern mass media culture.