IT WAS intended as a tongue-in-cheek pitch to cashed-up youngsters in the market for some new wheels.

Instead Mitsubishi's advertisement for its Pajero four-wheel-drive has drawn the ire of police, road safety experts and pedestrian advocates, who say it trivialises dangerous driving.

The advertisement, "Daniel's Birthday" (pictured right), depicts someone escaping at high speed from a rowdy birthday party in his new car.

As guests give chase, the hero evades capture by driving through building sites, over embankments and into a warehouse.

Soames Job, the road safety director for the Roads and Traffic Authority, said: "This advertisement depicts driving that, if it were to occur on Australian roads, would be both dangerous and illegal.

"[It] trivialises the consequences of motor vehicle crashes with each scene that shows one of the pursuers crashing, clearly aimed at creating humour.

"Motor vehicle crashes are not humorous and result in over 400 fatalities each year on NSW roads."

In a letter supporting a complaint to the Advertising Standards Bureau, NSW Police Traffic Services Commander John Hartley said the ad and others like it glorified speed and dangerous driving.

"[It] is at odds with the road safety message that I and many others involved in reducing trauma on the roads are trying to engender," he said.

The Pedestrian Council of Australia made the complaint about the ad to the bureau on the ground that by depicting people breaking the law it breached the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries' code of practice.

But the bureau dismissed the complaint, agreeing with Mitsubishi that the ad was "humorous".

The council's appeal was rejected, despite the expert testimony of Dr Soames and Commander Hartley.

With the costly complaint and appeal process extending well after the ad had finished its run, and just 49 of 425 complaints received by the bureau this year being upheld, some have questioned the body's effectiveness.