It all started almost 20 years ago with a Christmas album.

Bobby Shriver, brother of California’s First Lady, met U2 front man Bono while recording an album the band contributed to his first and only foray into the music business.

Shriver fell back into a career of politics and is the mayor of Santa Monica, but he also formed a lasting friendship with the Irish singer that has blossomed into a business partnership.

Now that partnership L.A.-based Persuader LLC is behind an international marketing campaign that has drawn the likes of Apple Inc., Gap Inc. and other major retailers into its fold, all with the aim of eliminating AIDS in Africa.

The Product Red campaign brands consumer products with the campaign logo and red color scheme, with participating companies channeling 40 percent of gross product revenues to the Global Fund, an organization combating AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

“I’ve had a good couple of years,” said Shriver, who hatched the idea with Bono in 2004 and since that time has gotten married and been elected to the Santa Monica City Council all while trying to move the campaign along.

So far it’s been a success.

Aside from Apple, which is selling a red iPod, and Gap, a number of other top retailers have signed on. Giorgio Armani Spa’s Emporio Armani is selling Red clothes, accessories and eyewear; Converse Inc. personalized Chuck Taylors; American Express Co. a red card; and Motorola Inc. a red Razr.

The companies all have made five-year commitments to the campaign, which is specifically targeting the funds to purchase anti-retroviral medicine. “We said to them, ‘Look, we can’t put people on medicine and take them off,” Shriver said.

So far in the U.S., Gap has taken center stage in the Red launch with a sexy ad campaign starring the likes of Don Cheadle, Jennifer Garner and Apolo Ohno. Gap is also donating 50 percent of gross profits from sales of their Red clothing line.

Getting all these companies on board was “not easy,” Shriver said. But on a recent trip to the Gap, he said it was all worth it when heard a young clerk talk to a customer about the campaign and the African AIDS epidemic.

“I knew I was in a unique place to get it done,” he said.