Today was another hectic day at the office. Workdays can get tangled up sometimes, serious, fraught with drama, looming deadlines, and too much coffee. And then you get a mysterious wooden crate in the mail. At least that’s what happened to me. I came back to my office after a meeting to discover that a large, heavy box addressed to me had magically appeared in the center of the room. I opened it to find another box, a wooden crate, mummified in layers of bubble wrap. I struggled to get the crate out of the box, the bubble wrap off, and then I muscled the heavy crate onto my desk. What the heck was this thing? Who sent it? The top of the crate was postmark-branded “Blithe Hollow Cemetery” and my name and “17 of 49″ were penned on the front. The crate was nailed shut. I knew I needed help and I had a feeling this was going to be something special, so I called in others.

I called our Creative Director, Jason Babler, into my office. Jason is like the kid at the birthday party who likes to open the other kid’s presents. He grabbed a hammer and chisel and set to work.

Lifting the lid, we discovered model grass and a tiny shovel inside. “I guess ya gotta dig,” Jason said. I dug.

I begin to dig to find out what’s inside this box of green earth. Is this zombified grave dirt?

After we realized this was going to get messy, as the green-dyed dirt in the box started flying everywhere, we moved to MAKE Labs. Then disaster struck.

Oops. As Jason moves the crate into the Labs, it breaks apart, sending dirt all over the place. It was Jason’s fault! I didn’t do it!

I dig down in what remains of the crate to find an amazingly beautiful little laser-etched coffin inside.

Everyone ewws and ahhhs as I lift the lid off the coffin (after intern Dan carefully pried up the coffin nails) to reveal the dread corpse inside. Note the scratch marks on the inside of the coffin lid, including the poor deceased’s own initials.

So what on earth did I UNearth? It’s an amazingly detailed silicone rubber zombie character from the forthcoming film, ParaNorman. LAIKA, the stop-motion animation studio behind Coraline (and the awesomely cool marketing campaign that stopped our offices three years ago), are producing this film (which opens on Aug 17). As with the Coraline “buzz marketing” campaign, where our then Art Director Daniel Carter got a customized Coraline box (1 of 50), I was chosen as a “Weird Hero” (a mantle I will gladly assume) and given ParaNorman box 17 of 49. I’m in esteemed company. Neil Gaiman got box number 2.

After the excitement had died down, and we’d cleaned up most of the zombie grave earth (that green stain better come off of the office carpet!), Jason and I talked about what brilliant marketing this is. As Jason said: “This sort of thing can be so hokey and just look like a lot of wasted money and effort, but this really rings true.” And it did. It created a special moment of magic and mayhem at the office (one I felt compelled to write about). It was a nice break from the routine of the day. In the clutches of “my” zombie was a calligraphic letter to me, actually to me. It talked about the magic of making, about not being “normal,” and about how weird kids grow up to be fascinating adults. The motto for their campaign is #weirdwins. I couldn’t agree more. And I will proudly display my little monument to weirdness (and successful buzz marketing) on my desk.

[Photos by Gregory Hayes]