BEIJING: Microsoft founder Bill Gates has been featured in a music video in a campaign against passive smoking in China, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
Gates plays a cameo role in the music video which forms part of a social media campaign launched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
He appears in the video titled ‘Say No to Forced Smoking’ released by 2012 Olympic Games gold medallist Feng Zhe, state-run China Daily reported.
Gates wears a T-shirt bearing the song title in the video.
His campaign received over 40 million hits on microblog and tens of thousands of people have voiced their support for the initiative in its first two weeks of release.
China’s Gates Foundation deputy director Yang Jianyue said the foundation has joined social media and philanthropic partners in calling on netizens to submit witty sayings against second-hand smoke.
The World Health Organisation’s Tobacco Free Initiative in China will broadcast anti-smoking videos submitted by contestants from China and the US through online outlets including its own Sina Weibo account next week.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission said China has more than 300 million smokers and 740 million people are exposed to second-hand smoke every year. –BERNAMA