---
title: Can You Swim? Why Not?
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/can-you-swim-why-not-red-cross-1941/
description: Text poster with a red cross and a grinning cartoon swimmer in mid-dive, asking 'Can You Swim? Tagged by technique, with source and rights.
section: Collection
---

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3. Can You Swim? Why Not?

[![Can You Swim? Why Not?, 1941 US poster: Text poster with a red cross and a grinning cartoon swimmer in mid-dive, asking 'Can](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/can-you-swim-why-not-red-cross-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/can-you-swim-why-not-red-cross-1941.jpg)

# Can You Swim? Why Not?

Text poster with a red cross and a grinning cartoon swimmer in mid-dive, asking 'Can You Swim? Why Not?' and inviting readers to a Swimming Campaign held at the American Red Cross and a blank partner line, to teach every boy and girl to swim. The technique is faint here: a universal 'every boy and girl' invitation (bandwagon).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
CAN YOU SWIM?
WHY NOT ?
LEARN AT THE SWIMMING CAMPAIGN HELD AT
[blank space for venue]
THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
AND
[blank space for partner]
Cooperating To Teach Every Boy and Girl To Swim.
POSTER 1004
```

[← A call to a breed that never dies](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/call-to-a-breed-that-never-dies-1941/) [Can you use it? Learn how...now →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/can-you-use-it-learn-how-now-1941/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (Spanish Netherlands · 1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ["Jackson ticket" with Hickory tree motto, Baltimore (1828)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jackson-ticket-hickory-tree-1828/) (United States · 1828 · Bandwagon, Transfer)
- [Democratic tickets, "Go it, ye Cripples!" and "Stop Van!!!" (Ohio electors, Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-stop-van-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)
- [Democratic ticket, "Going the whole hog" (Ohio electors for Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-whole-hog-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon)
- ["Political race course - Union Track - fall races 1836"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/political-race-course-union-track-harrison-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon, Name-calling). Content note: Partisan caricature of named politicians that uses the epithet 'Black Dan' for Daniel Webster and regional stereotypes in the speech balloons.
- ["Grand match between the Kinderhook poney and the Ohio ploughman", April 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grand-match-kinderhook-poney-ohio-ploughman-harrison-1836/) (United States · Apr 1836 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ['The People's Line -- Take care of the Locomotive', Whig woodcut, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Bandwagon)
- ['The Fox Chace', Whig cartoon of Van Buren hunted by cider-barrel hounds, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-fox-chace-van-buren-harrison-childs-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)