Gannett News Service

Raining Rose's lip balms may taste like passion-fruit rum and raspberry vodka, but the only buzz is word-of-mouth about new flavors of booze.

Raining Rose, the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, maker of natural body-care products, is turning out liquor-flavored lip balms for Malibu rum and Smirnoff vodka. These and other companies use the balms to promote mango rum, citrus-twist vodka and other flavors designed to give new life in the marketplace to familiar alcoholic beverages.

None of the lip balms contains alcohol, said Chuck Hammond, who owns Raining Rose with partner Art Christoffersen.

The balms are not targeted toward children. They're given away in bars and on spring-break beaches across the world to promote new flavors of liquor, Hammond said.

That makes the products palatable to Amy George, a spokeswoman for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which is more concerned with national alcohol advertising that targets youngsters.

But Douglas Gentile, an assistant professor of psychology at Iowa State University, said advertising products make a greater impact on children than many adults realize.

A study he completed of seventh- to 12th-graders showed students had a brand preference for beer even though they had never tasted it.

Gentile said the promotional lip balms ''probably aren't powerful enough to make kids start drinking.'' But a sweet-tasting lip balm could help kids overcome one of the biggest barriers to underage drinking: taste'' Gentile said.

Hammond said he doubts a liquor-flavored lip balm would encourage a child to drink.