Lucifer Associates Joke Bedevils Students

"All are welcome" to schmooze with the powers of darkness who lead Lucifer Associates on Wednesday, Oct. 28, according to fliers advertising a recruiting meeting for "one of this world's leading investment banking firms."

The prank advertisements first appeared last week when they were door-dropped in several Houses, including Quincy and Mather.

"I thought, `This must be a joke,'" said Liana R. Tuller '99. "It seemed kind of ironic, considering what people say about consulting."

Telltale signs of a prank include Lucifer Associates' address at 66 Madison Ave., a nonexistent phone number and an office in Dis, a level of hell in Dante's Inferno. The Office of Career Services (OCS) does not list the company as an on-campus recruiter.

According to OCS's Web site, the firm is not scheduled for a recruiting meeting on the 28th--only Anteros Capital Market; Putnam, Hayes, and Bartlett, Inc.; and Schroder and Company, Inc. are listed.

The Lampoon, a semi-secret Bow Street social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine, denied circulating the prank fliers.

"I don't know anything about it. It's not a Lampoon joke," said Poonster President Matthew J.T. Murray '99.

Whatever the author of the joke intended--a social commentary on Career Week or just to confuse overeager fall recruits--students largely missed it.

Jennifer L. Marder '00, like most Harvard students, said she didn't pay any attention to them.

"I haven't really seen [the fliers]. I think I heard someone talking about them though," she said.