U2 [ tickets ] frontman Bono [ tickets ] and philanthropist Bobby Shriver have announced the launch of Product RED, billed as "an economic initiative designed to deliver a sustainable flow of private sector money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria."

Under the plan, several major companies will channel to the Global Fund charity a portion of the profits from sales of specially designed products. Those proceeds will go to support AIDS programs in Africa with a focus on women and children, according to a press release.

American Express (founding partner), Converse, Gap and Giorgio Armani are the launch partners. Each company has designed products that bear the RED logo, and will be available beginning March 1.

"It's an amazing thing that these companies are doing--lending their creativity and financial firepower to the Global Fund's fight against AIDS in Africa, the greatest health crisis in 600 years," Bono said in a press release. "I think doing the RED thing, doing good, will turn out to be good business for them."

More information about the Product Red program--which was announced Thursday (1/26) during the second day of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland--is available at the RED website.

Bono and Shriver are also the co-founders of Debt AIDS Trade in Africa (DATA), an organization that lobbies the world's richest nations to forgive debts owed by the poorest.