What color is the can?

@jack-dodds, it's a fine thing to have goals in life. But it begs the question, "Now what?"

@jkuvakas Well stated JK.  I suppose there are disadvantages to peaking early in life (nothing comes to mind right away) but the upside is that you don't have to think so hard as time goes by.  Like heartbeats, thoughts are not given to us in unlimited quantities at birth so it's wise to not be wasteful; which is also why gym exercise is overrated.

In this case I don't think it has anything to do with primary or secondary colours or colour contrast. Despite the amount of green in the picture, the eye (or rather, the brain) wouldn't normally interpret any non-green pixels as a contrasting red (if that were the case it would also see the white "Coca" script and the band around the top of the can as red rather than white). I think it all comes from visual memory. You know a Coke can is red with white bits, so that's what you see. An interesting demonstration of the complexities of colour vision.

p.s. A quiet word to my spell-checker. For God's sake would you stop telling me I've mis-spelt "color". I'm an ignorant Brit and you're not going to convert me anytime soon, so sod off.

@graeme-ogg I can state as a matter of fact that it has everything to do with red and green being opposite colours.  Having studied colour at BA level and worked for forty-five years with colour and design in major international organisations, I can say categorically this is an established fact that pertains to colours falling upon sensors inside the eye.  It does not affect the white as white is light, containing all colours before refraction.  Certainly the brain recognises the Coca-Cola logo as being red and this aids the visual deception and doubtless is why that was chosen as a subject rather than a daisy.

@charles-rockett Thank you for this Charles, I was thinking my version of the same thing.....well....similar.  I will add however that the Borden Milk Company had already secured the daisy as their corporate logo.

@graeme-ogg Graeme; in my personal *experiences pixels, both female and male, are traditionally green as is the dust they scatter about (see examples below). I understand there are reported genetic colo(u)r variances in very limited numbers on record, the legendary Noel Pixel and the Kuvakas Pixel being the most noteworthy.  I trust this info will be of assistance.

* may have been "some kind of mushroom" influenced and my mind was moving on...

@jack-dodds two problems:  I wonder if Borden's are as globally recognised as Coca-Cola; and then there's the little issue of finding the opposite colour to Daisy's smiling face.

@charles-rockett The celebrated bovine's name is Elsie.  Sadly I can only speak to North America's reverence for Borden's.

Would Henrietta Holstein, with further etiquette training, be of assistance ?  She is an alternative colo(u)r....but then is she really a colo(u)r at all?

@jack-dodds We might use Henrietta's tongue, but that would bring is back to the red/green dichotomy.

(Also invoking John K's celebrated Chevrolet).

@charles-rockett Right you are.....and the Red Green thing is, like Borden's Daisy, copyrighted.

@jack-dodds Sir. You can always be relied on to step into any forum discussion being conducted at a simplistic level of amateurish ignorance and to elevate the entire proceedings to a higher intellectual and spiritual plane*. I think my expression of profound gratitude will be shared by all and Sandra (not Shirley as previously stated in error.)

* Like a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, but with 4 wings, 7 engines and a freshly filled cannabis grinder on every seatback.

Thanks Graeme.....I'm becoming verklempt.  Your heartfelt comments are an example of how the advanced education of one person, when unselfishly shared, ultimately can benefit so many others.  Or as we say in Latin; "Certificatus Attendai 7 annus generata infinitum graymatterus".