In many settings, there exists a distributor who produces, makes, and/or sells high-quality goods, merchandise, inventions, and all sorts of popular goodies that the public can't wait to get their hands on. Perhaps the distributor is a high-quality businessman, a particularly popular MegaCorp, a weapons manufacturer, or even a simple celebrity or artist of great skill and talent. Perhaps the distributor is an entire nation or country in question. The problem is that the distributor is actually disliked at best and fervently hated at worst by those who choose to purchase or use their product line. That is when this trope comes into effect.
This trope features a circumstance where an individual or group voices approval for the product, tools, or substances produced by another who they actively voice distaste of in other situations. For a metaphorical example, Alice claims she makes and sells amazing lemonade. Bob deeply hates Alice, but Bob buys the lemonade and agrees Alice's lemonade definitely fits her claim. This circumstance can be applied on a personal or international level depending on the case in question.
This trope is often the reason associated with why a Villain with Good Publicity and a successful Cut Lex Luthor a Check comes into place. Sure, a baddie can be Obviously Evil, but if what they are selling is genuinely popular and useful to the masses then even tolerance among detractors can ensue. If sufficient, the hated producer can become an Indispensable Scoundrel for the setting. If the producer is a generally heroic figure hated by villainous figures with beloved products, expect Baddie Flattery. For a malevolent figure, this product may be The One Thing I Don't Hate About You that makes the figure even remotely tolerable enough to keep around.
From an artistic point of view, this trope can be caused by the Death of the Author, in which a work is interpreted and accepted by various degrees of fandom, despite any personal disagreements or grievances with the sources a work originates. This circumstance is actually Older Than Feudalism, such as the case of Socrates and Apology of Socrates. In the work, Socrates testifies that in his search for a wiser man than himself, he listened to the great poets of his time. He thought their works very fine, but when they tried to explain them, he thought they were hopeless - immediately thinking the dumbest spectators around would do a better job.
For stories depicting Humans Through Alien Eyes, this trope can be the reason by non-human entities may enjoy human culture a la Klingons Love Shakespeare or be Intrigued by Humanity but still despise humans as a whole for whatever reason.
Nevertheless often Truth in Television, especially as commerce and trade becomes spread worldwide between groups that often bear some animosity to one another, sometimes leading to a Foreign Culture Fetish among populations of conflicted nations. However, In-Universe Examples Only must be applied to avoid unnecessary Flame Bait.
No Real Life Examples, Please!
Examples:
- In Resident Evil: Damnation, the Plucky Comic Relief JD lives and fights against the government of an East Slav Republic, but voices extreme love for American Fast Food and Movies to the point of Foreign Culture Fetish. When asked by Leon, JD admits he hates America and its government but absolutely adores the stuff it produces.
- Played hilarious straight by Red Rocket in Justice League: Generation Lost. Gavril Ivanovich was a captain in the Rocket Red Brigade but resigned out of disgust with Russia's continuing Westernization and took to becoming a revolutionary bent on destroying "all the corporate cancer and traitors" that had rotted his nation: western influences such as fast-food chains and corporate businesses. Despite this, he is a long-standing admirer of the American-formed JLI and their merchandise and jumped with glee at the chance to team up with them.
- In the first act of The Death of Stalin, Stalin invites/forces all of his inner circle to get drunk and watch American Western movies late into the evening. The real Stalin really was a fan of Westerns, especially the ones made by John Ford.
- In Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Master Chiun is a severe Korean chauvinist and xenophobe who despises much about American culture, but he has a soft spot for American Soap Operas. He calls them the only worthwhile thing the United States has ever produced.
- In the introduction of Lord of War, Yuri Orlov explained the following regarding his hated business of gun running and the unscrupulous nature of his clientele using the weaponry of their opposing side against them:
Yuri Orlov: I supplied to every army but the Salvation Army. I sold Israeli-made Uzis to Muslims. I delivered Communist-made bullets to fascists. I even shipped cargo to Afghanistan while they were fighting my fellow Soviets.
- In Vertical Limit, a Pakistani Army Officer admits that "We may be at war with [India], but their tea's the best."
- In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter found a potion manual by someone calling himself the "Half-Blood Prince", and soon made huge strides in this matter, becoming better than when his malignant teacher Snape was teaching this matter. At the end of the book, he discovers the aforenamed Prince was really Severus Snape.
- In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine tie-in book Legends of the Ferengi, Quark reveals that the Ferengi Alliance has, like most races in the Alpha Quadrant, a long-standing emnity with the Tholian Assemby. Which doesn't stop the Ferengi preferring Tholian silk for making expensive suits. And while the Ferengi have never bothered to find out why the Tholians want Ferengi bog moss, as long as they're prepared to pay for it, it can be assumed they likewise find it superior to other mosses. It's a Rule of Acquisition: "Know your enemy - but do business with him always."
- In Supernatural, many monsters and various supernatural beings (even God Himself) have voiced various distaste and disrespect for humanity as a whole and have no problem wiping out the species, but have voiced extreme love for various aspects of human culture or pastimes like games, alcoholic drinks, nacho cheese, and pornography.
- This trope is Exploited in Madam Secretary when Jay negotiates for Israel to sell Jaffa Oranges to Iran in return for Pistachios both sides supply and enjoy mutually despite violent conflict as one of the terms of a renewed ceasefire, after interference from Iran's Grand Ayatollah scuttles an attempt at an actual peace treaty. The idea is to create a trade dependency between the two regional enemies as a way of subtly nudging them to bury the hatchet.
- Star Trek:
- The Federation demonstrates the trope while in a Space Cold War with the Romulan Star Empire for most of the franchise. Romulan ale is illegal in the Federation as a result (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine briefly legalizes it when the Romulans join the war against the Dominion) but is a highly prized commodity by members of the Federation. Attempting to drink smuggled Romulan ale is nevertheless something of a rite of passage for Starfleet personnel.
- As a result of being forced to use captured Cardassian disruptor rifles during her time in the Bajoran Resistance, Kira Nerys has come to deeply respect the weapon. She even recommends Ziyal stick with a Cardassian rifle instead of a Federation one since it's a lot simpler to use and extremely hardy.
- BattleTech: The Word of Blake despised the Clans perhaps more than any other non-Clan faction in the game. However, that didn't stop them from gathering all Clan weaponry they could get their hands on and distributing it among their elites, as Clan lasers were more powerful than their Inner Sphere counterparts, and Clan missiles and ballistic weapons were lighter weight. They even went ahead and built several Land-Air-Mechs that were factory-built with salvaged Clantech.
- Shadowrun: Runners are pretty much required to hate the mega corps, but everyone uses mega corp-produced equipment because there's generally no viable alternatives for a lot of it, but also because some of the things, like Ares' weaponry, that's extremely good quality.
- In Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, Humans and Deimos exhibit Fantastic Racism towards each other to the point of attacking one another on sight, and deimos superstition holds that touching anything made by a human will bring bad fortune. Despite this, the Deimos heroes Delma and Darc both fight with gear looted from humans they killed (Delma uses a metal claw, while Darc uses a human sword and wears a breastplate), both begrudgingly admitting and enjoying that human-forged weapons are sharper and deadlier than a deimos' Natural Weapons or anything most deimos could craft.
- In Paper Mario: The Origami King, Jean-Pierre Colored Pencils the 12th (or simply Colored Pencils) of King Olly's Legion of Stationary guards the Red Streamer atop Overlook Tower, covering the tower with his drawings that Olivia seems to enjoy looking at. After Mario defeats him, all of his drawings disappear and Olivia is disappointed to see them go, saying that he was a pretty good artist despite working for the side of evil.
- Occurs for Sephiroth in Everyone Is Home. In the Story Arc surrounding the quest to resurrect all the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighters killed by Sephiroth, King K. Rool borrows one of Sephiroth's "Fake Invite" practical jokes to convince Spring Man to spill the beans on how to revive Min Min, whom he holds a grudge against for stealing his place in the roster. K. Rool admits while Sephiroth did murder the cast, Sephiroth also did have inspiring ideas for pranks he couldn't help but admire.
- A Piers Bors comic satirizes criticisms of the trope. In it, a Strawman Political chastises a person for continuing to use Apple products despite that person not agreeing with Apple's practices or treatment of its employees. The intent is that there can't be any compromise when a person says they don't support something, but as the comic goes on the strawman shows that he doesn't expect anyone to participate in something they want to improve, up to scolding a peasant who simply wants society to be a little bit better for living in it.
- Happens when it comes to the tech corporation Waddle in Ducktales 2017. Even though Mark Beaks is one of the recurring enemies of the McDuck family, the triplets Huey, Dewey, and Louie are still occasionally shown using electronic products made by Beaks' company, Waddle, with no issue.
- Happens and is lampshaded repeatedly by Zak Saturday when it comes to the TV Show Weird World in The Secret Saturdays. Weird World is a show run and hosted by V.V. Argost, the Saturdays' most hated and dangerous enemy, who repeatedly tries to kill them all when they attempt to foil his plans for world domination. Despite this Zak still watches Argost's show regularly and has various Weird World merchandise in his room, much to his parent's chagrin.
- This trope occurs when it comes to Hannibal McFist and his company in Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja. Hannibal McFist is, after the Sorcerer, Randy's most prominent enemy and regularly attempts to destroy the Norrisvile Ninja. Despite knowing this and what a selfish greedy crook McFist really is underneath his "beloved philanthropist" image, Randy and Howard still regularly and enthusiastically enjoy McFist Industries products or events (which to their credit are often quite impressive and would be difficult to flat out avoid all of due to McFist owning nearly every business in town), to the point that its lampshaded multiple times throughout the series. With them even on a few occasions being excited at the prospect of him expanding his company to acquire one of the few remaining areas he doesn't dominate before remembering they have to stop him.
- In The Loud House, this trope is downplayed with Mr. Grouse towards Lynn Sr. Mr. Grouse doesn't exactly hate Lynn Sr., but he finds him kind of annoying and is constantly aggravated and pestered by the antics of his many rambunctious children. However, he loves Lynn Sr.'s lasagna, to the point where Lynn Sr. sometimes bribes Mr. Grouse with it.
- In The Amazing World of Gumball, the Chanax corporation is one of the largest polluters in the world, but Gumball and Rocky agree that it's Necessarily Evil because they make delicious cheese puff snacks that the duo enjoys.
- In SpongeBob SquarePants, Squidward often finds SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs unbearably annoying and despises his cashier job in the Krusty Krab, but at the same time, he enjoys the "Krabby Patties" (a type of burger) that they make that's generally made by SpongeBob himself.
