Lysol (known for its cleaning products) began an advertising campaign that portrayed their products as “healthing” (health + helping). Lysol trademarked “healthing” on January 15, 2013.
 
The Oxford English Dictionary has two definitions for “healthing,” but with citations from the 1500s and 1600s. One definition is “The furthering or imparting of health. rare” and the other is “The drinking of healths; toasting.”
 
“Healths and Healthing: Beyond Disease and Dysfunctional Environments” was a paper presented by Robert Hoke at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in December 1972. Hoke is generally credited for popularizing “healthing,” but the term had very little use until Lysol’s 2013 advertising campaign.
 
 
Lysol
Introducing HEALTHING
At Lysol, we believe in helping to protect the ones you love. Cleaning doesn’t cover it so we call it Healthing.
Click below to find out if you’re Healthing and unlock your Special Offer.
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
healthing, n.
Etymology:  <

health? n. or health v.
1. The furthering or imparting of health. rare.
1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xlv. 303   The helping, and healthing of all studentes.
2. The drinking of healths; toasting.
1628 Bp. J. Hall Serm. Publike Fast 52   What bouzing, and quaffing, and whiffing, and healthing is there.
1654 J. Trapp Comm. Esther i 8   This detestable healthing and carousing too too common in all parts of Christendom.
   
Google Books
Dimensions of Humanistic Medicine:
Reflections on science and technology, patient care, administration, training, and health policy
By Stuart Miller, et al.
San Francisco, CA: Institute for the Study of Humanistic Medicine
1975
Pg. 96:
Robert Hoke, “Healths and Healthing: Beyond Disease and Dysfunctional Environments,” paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C., 29 December, 1972, p. 11.
 
Google Books
Dynamics of Problem-Oriented Approaches:
Patient Care and Documentation
By Judith Bloom Walter, Geraldine P. Pardee, Doris M Molbo, Judith G Atwood; et al.
Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott
1976
Pg. 142:
“Healthing”
The term “healthing,” coined by Captain Hoke, implies that health is more than a state of being (Hoke, 1972). “Healthing” is a verb and an active element. According to Sargent: “It is unreasonable to think of health as a characteristicof man per se. Because man and environment constitute a system, health is a process of man-environment interactions within a particular ecological context.”
 
Google Books
The Body
By Nicholas J Fox
Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity Press
2012  
Pg. 99:
Rather than saying a body is healthy, we might talk about its ‘becoming healthy’, or about the ‘healthing’ of a body, to remind us of the active processes involved and the fluctuating nature of embodied health.
 
Family Wealth Management
Is America Healthing Fast Enough?
Posted on the 13 June, 2012 at 10:59 amWritten by admin in Blog
Six internal factors suggest that the United States’ economy is slowly healing.
 
Greenwashing Index
HEALTHING by lysol
Submitted by: becochic on May 14, 2013
Description:
Stop just CLEANING. Start HEALTHING.” So goes Lysol’s new slogan. Ironic, considering the fact that 80% of Lysol’s products earned D or F ratings on EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaners. The ad begins with a small child riding a tricycle. A wagon hooked to it displays the message “Why do we clean?” The announcer goes on to say that we clean to stay healthy. She claims that Lysol products are so much healthier than alternative products that they needed to invent a brand new term for cleaning in order to accurately describe the way Lysol brand cleans. The term? HEALTHING. The ad continues: The word HEALTHING sits on a large bed of green grass. The Lysol truck pulls the bed of grass through the neighborhood and happy children and moms run outside at the sight to follow.
 
New York (NY) Times
Advertising
20 Questions on Soap, Cereal and Related Oddities
By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: May 27, 2013
(...)
Will a new campaign for the Lysol line of products sold by Reckitt Benckiser, which is centered on the word “healthing,” prove to be the biggest bugaboo for English teachers and grammarians since R. J. Reynolds infuriated them with the jingle “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should”?
   
Environmental Working Group
Is Lysol’s New Crusade Against Germs “Healthing” or Hurting?
By: Sarah Swanke, EWG Research Intern.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
This spring Lysol introduced the world to “healthing,” a perfect buzzword to launch their new marketing ploy/public safety campaign. By blending the words healthy and helping, the campaign is apparently trying to send the message that it is doing something revolutionary for your mind, body or soul.
 
In fact, it does none of these things. “Healthing” is nothing more than a new sales pitch to market Lysol products as better cleaners. Using bright colors and images of cloyingly cheerful children, the messaging is clear: Keep your family healthy by using a product that kills 99.9 percent of all germs.
(...)
COMMENTS
Bryan ĸ McDonald•10 days ago−
‘healthing’ is actually a word. Check it out in the OED. It dates back to the sixteenth century, where it meant ‘the furthering or imparting of health’
   
Fritinancy
May 29, 2013
Lysol and Healthing
(...)
Lysol has gone all in with its Healthing campaign, which launched in April and appears to have grown out of the brand’s 2010 “Mission for Health” initiative. The company has registered the word “healthing” and the slogan “Stop Just Cleaning. Start Healthing” as trademarks, and has launched educational/marketing partnerships with schools, YMCAs, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Healthing” appears throughout the website (although I haven’t yet seen an ad that uses it).
 
Althouse
June 1, 2013
“Healthing.”
I’m not sure what bothers me more here — the word “healthing” or the notion of spraying germ-killer all over the house. What passes for cleaning these days? What passes for healthy? What passes for language?!
 
(Trademark)
Word Mark HEALTHING ALONG
Goods and Services IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Education services, namely, developing curriculum for others in the field of personal preventative health, nutrition, hygiene and injury prevention. FIRST USE: 20040701. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20040701
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 85226402
Filing Date January 26, 2011
Current Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Published for Opposition September 13, 2011
Registration Number 4062523
Registration Date November 29, 2011
Owner (REGISTRANT) Healthing Along, Inc. CORPORATION NEW JERSEY Saint Peter’s College 2641 Kennedy Blvd Jersey City NEW JERSEY 07306
Attorney of Record Chad M. Hinrichs
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

(Trademark)
Word Mark HEALTHING
Goods and Services IC 003. US 001 004 006 050 051 052. G & S: All purpose household cleaning preparations; cleaning preparations for toilets, bathtubs, sinks, and floors; disposable wipes impregnated with cleaning compounds for use in bathrooms and kitchens; all purpose cleaners; general purpose cleaning, polishing, and abrasive liquids, powders, gels and creams; all purpose toilet and bathroom cleaning preparations; all purpose cleaner with disinfecting properties; impregnated cleaning cloths; wipes impregnated with cleaning preparations; non-medicated hand washes; cleaning preparations incorporating substances for neutralizing, controlling or reducing allergens; antibacterial soaps; handwashing preparations
IC 005. US 006 018 044 046 051 052. G & S: Disinfecting properties; all purpose disinfectants; germicides; hand sanitizer; sanitizers for hard surfaces; anti-bacterial preparations, namely, anti-bacterial wipes for personal use; air deodorizing preparations; carpet deodorizers; odor neutralizing preparations for use on carpets, soft furnishing, household surfaces and in the air
IC 016. US 002 005 022 023 029 037 038 050. G & S: Printed material, namely, booklets and leaflets, newsletters, journals, event programs and magazines all in the field of germ protection; printed instructional and teaching materials in the field of germ protection; pens; posters
IC 036. US 100 101 102. G & S: Charitable fund raising
IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Education in the nature of training and instructional services relating to germ protection; online publication of information via websites relating to germ protection
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 85823723
Filing Date January 15, 2013
Current Basis 1B
Original Filing Basis 1B
Published for Opposition June 25, 2013
Owner (APPLICANT) Reckitt Benckiser LLC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY DELAWARE Morris Corporate Center IV 399 Interpace Parkway Parsippany NEW JERSEY 07054
Attorney of Record Mark Lerner
Type of Mark TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE