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Founder Tim Ray works with butcher in Oakville, Ont., to assemble the boxes

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Tim Ray runs a business called Carnivore Club, a Toronto-based meat-by-mail operation that sends out curated meats once a month to subscribers. He also has become known for using advertising that is considered by some to be sexist and sophomoric. However, it has worked for him: It has “really paid off as far as getting us where we are today.”Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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When Mr. Ray set up an IndieGogo campaign last year to kickstart funding for the business, he knew he’d have to produce a marketing campaign that would stand out from the crowd. In the ad, above, a woman in yoga gear prepares a smoothie in the kitchen as she brags to a friend about how virile her boyfriend has become since she convinced him to go vegan. In another room, the boyfriend mocks her claims while attributing his newfound virility to the Carnivore Club’s cured meats.

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Here are some of the products distributed by Carnivore Club.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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Carol Goriup arranges cured, air-dried meat from South Africa called biltong, at Florence Meats in Oakville, Ont. The product has been packaged by Carnivore Club for distribution to its members.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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Biltong is shaved at Florence Meats. Carnivore Club has 500 regular subscribers who pay $50 a month for a box of cured meats that has included biltong, duck breast prosciutto and bison jerky.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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Fresh sausage cures on a rack at Florence Meats, as Damian Goriup looks on. In June, Mr. Ray launched Carnivore Club in Britain. But the branding that worked so well in Canada failed to translate there. “The female consumer in the U.K. finds the humour distasteful and sexist.” Mr. Ray decided to remove the video from the British website.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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Mr. Goriup cuts beef ribs into steaks at Florence Meats.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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Mr. Goriup handles a lamb in the aging room of Florence Meats.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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Pork ribs hang inside Florence Meats. Mr. Ray considered how raunchy humour in his marketing message might affect sales, but “at the end of the day if we were to whitewash it down we wouldn’t draw the attention we do,” he concludes.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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A new video for Carnivore Club will debut in January, and Mr. Ray is confident it will have a good reception in North America. But he’s unsure how it will affect his already tenuous foothold in the British market. “I have no idea how they’re going to react but I suspect the humour will outweigh the derogatory messaging,” he says.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail

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