Sony BMG and Epic/Legacy Recordings have designed an innovative promo that lets fans of Michael Jackson’s Thriller upload photos of themselves to appear as zombies within the original music video. The microsite, supported by Google ads, invites users to upload three pics of themselves at www.michaeljackson.com/mythrillervideo to get dancing with the dead.

We’re not talking about just another 2-D pasted-head microsite. The Thriller promo transforms participants into something more like 3-D avatars.

The anniversary celebration’s also got some other Web 2.0 and multiplatform perks tied in. Users who participate in the promo will see their videos automatically uploaded to YouTube for easy sharing on blogs and Facebook pages. There’s also a feature that lets users send texts to Michael Jackson and purchase the King of Pop’s tunes as ringtones for cell phones.

As one might expect, the music video has already inspired user-generated videos on YouTube – including one of prison inmates performing the dance… for more than 12 million viewers at last count.