The Healing Dice; more EV production in the US; Solo cup gets a warehouse

Sep 21, 2023

Resin, sculpture, organ donations and tabletop gaming are coming together in one public relations campaign to get people registered as donors.

Donate Life America worked with advertising group The Martin Agency and Crux Scenica to create The Healing Dice, a set of eight die used in games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Each die has an inner core visible through the transparent outer resin representing a lifesaving organ that can be donated — such as kidneys, lungs, liver, bone and tissue.

The project is intended to nudge gamers to register as organ donors.

"Kim Nguyen and Kate Placentra, creative directors on the project at Martin, said the goal was to make something that fit seamlessly into the [tabletop gaming] world while nudging gamers to become registered organ donors themselves," Tim Nudd from our sister paper Advertising Age, writes. "Players are a very passionate group — and, as Martin found out in its research, a surprisingly large group as well."

Registered organ donors can sign up for a chance to win the set through March 27

Most tabletop games use seven die, but the Healing Dice has an eighth die, a 20-sided die representing a heart that can be used for lifesaving throws.

Stellantis, the automaker with brands including Chrysler, Ram, Jeep and Fiat, said Feb. 28 that it is investing $155 million in Kokomo, Ind., to make electric drive modules for future EVs. And on the same day, it said it was indefinitely idling its assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill.

Belvidere has been on the bubble for future operations for a few months. In December, executives in Auburn Hills, Mich., said it would be shut down at least temporarily while the company considers its needed operations footprint in an EV-focused auto future.

"While we continue our successful transition to a decarbonized future in our European operations, we are now setting those same foundational elements for the North American market," Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO, said in a news release.

While the Indiana investments are focused more on castings and machining for the electric engine, the state also will be the future home of lithium-ion battery separator film, thanks to upcoming plans by Entek Manufacturing Inc.

Entek CEO Larry Keith recently discussed the upcoming $1.5 billion project, which has received a grant from the federal government as part of its support of the EV manufacturing infrastructure in the U.S.

Solo Cup, the party beverage container favorite, is adding a big warehouse in suburban Chicago, although details of its plans aren't being released.

At 1 million square feet, the site in Country Club Hills, Ill., is too big for your average March Madness celebration, but our sister paper Crain's Chicago Business notes it's well located for easy access to Interstates 80 and 57. The project is one of two major warehouse investments by familiar names. Retailer Target has leased a 1.2 million-square-foot site in Joliet.

Solo is owned by Dart Container Corp. of Mason, Mich. It declined to comment on the move, Crain's Chicago writes.

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