Table 1

Comparing HIV, tobacco and NCD movements

	HIV-AIDS	Tobacco	NCDs
Focus	One disease with few interventions (improved access to antiretrovirals, along with expanded care and prevention services)	One product with one primary form of consumption (smoking)	Multiple diseases encompassing diverse risk factors, treatment regimes and populations affected
Readiness/political will	Understood as a transnational security threat that could destabilise societies, already a history of big investments (eg, UNAIDS)	Accepted cause of disease and death driven by an industry proven to lie and increasingly recognised as a social pariah	Costs and consequences of inaction are invisible or understood, environment of economic hardship, competing with existing priorities
Marketability/perception	Innocent victims; women/babies; acute	Children and young adults swayed by marketing and retained by addiction	Older people, lifestyle choice
Leadership	Vocal, coherent social movement led by UNAIDS	Aggressive leadership by WHO, social movements in many countries	Diverse social movements and no clear organisational leader
Strategy	Consensus on specific ‘asks’, targets, and funding requests	Consensus on evidence-based policies, legal process (FCTC), and institutional leadership (WHO)	Inability to devise a coherent plan on financial, policy and institutional ‘asks’