Reggie Bibbs #1
Reggie Bibbs #1
Founder of the 'Just Ask' campaign to promote NF awareness
Reggie Bibbs is a highly inspirational 42-year-old-man living in Houston, Texas. He was born with neurofibromatosis (NF), a genetic disease which causes him to develop tumors on his body. NF can be a subtle disease, but in Reggie's case it has left him with a disfigured face. After years of public frustration, he launched a unique one-man campaign to call attention to this disease.
"I have neurofibromatosis. It's a disorder that causes tumors to grow along my nervous system. In my case, it's fairly disfiguring. When I would go out in public, people would stare or, worse, walk away. So I came up with an idea for a t-shirt and the rest, as they say, is history."
With the help of a friend at a local advertising agency, Reggie Bibbs created a t-shirt that would invite people to come up and talk to him about his disorder. "I figured the more they knew about my disease, the more they would understand me."
"When Reggie called me with the idea for a t-shirt that read, 'Just Ask', I literally had tears in my eyes, said long-time friend Lou Congelio, president of STANANDLOU Advertising. The idea was so simple and so powerful that I immediately offered him a position in the company."
The t-shirt features on the front an abstract outline of Reggie's face and, on the back, large type that simply says,'JUST ASK!'. Also included on the back is the url for Reggie's website, www.reggiebibbs.com.
"We figured he would need a business card to go with the shirt with an explanation of what NF was. Then everything kind of snowballed from there," said Lou Congelio. "Then we figured a website would be the quickest, most efficient way to get out the information about NF so we designed one of those."
The project quickly grew to include links to Flickr.com to show Reggie's photographs, a link to YouTube to show his TV commercials, and most importantly, a link to his blog where Reggie adds daily posts. Today, Reggie is also on MySpace and Facebook and has an online store on his website. He's been interviewed by Wikinews too.
Reggie's t-shirt, business card and website were nominated for an ADDY Award along with 850 entries submitted by 60 different ad agencies, design firms and consultants.
"I am really excited about the Addy Award nomination. Winning would be a great honor, not just for me, but for everyone else who has NF. People with NF and other disfiguring conditions find it difficult to do everyday tasks, and this site increases public understanding of the hurdles that we have to overcome. If we win, I will accept the award on behalf of Ronnie, my brother who had NF and cancer. He died in September of 2006, and I miss him a lot," said Reggie upon hearing of the nomination.
On Feb. 17, 2007, the Reggie Bibbs marketing campaign vied against advertising professionals at the 45th Annual ADDY Awards presented by the Houston Advertising Federation and WON a Gold ADDY for PUBLIC SERVICE-Mixed / Multiple Media Campaign!
"I see myself five years from now, still doing the website, I'm gonna continue to do the website, continue to spread awareness of neurofibromatosis until we eventually have a cure. That's what I want, I want to continue until we find a cure for neurofibromatosis."
To learn more about NF and Reggie, visit Reggie's Houston Advertising Federation Addy Award-winning website and join him and his friends at the Neurofibromatosis Cafe.