“Bud Light, the beer I drink after the kids go to bed,” may have been the clincher phrase for Laura Anten of Caribou.

Coaxed by a friend, Anten, 25, and her husband, Bryan, found a babysitter, grabbed their coats, and headed to the Sports Inn in Caribou, for a 7:30 p.m. beer commercial casting call April 22.

Bright lights and cameras greeted about 20 contest participants that evening. Filming the event and interviewing were Dick Palm, a local disc jockey, and representatives of Solman Distributors Inc. of Caribou, a local Anheuser-Busch wholesale company.

The film was presented to an advertising company that selected Anten and Gregory Welch, 42, of South Portland to appear in a “Bud Light Spotlight” national commercial in late November.

The two were among 37 people chosen nationally to travel and film the commercial from Oct. 23 to 28 in Los Angeles, Calif.

Recalling her experience, Anten said, “We usually don’t go out and get a babysitter on the spur of the moment.”

Questions posed to bar patrons included: What time is best to drink Bud Light?; how long have you been drinking Bud Light?; why do you drink Bud Light?; and why should you be in a Bud Light commercial?

“They asked a whole bunch of questions. I don’t really remember my answers. They just came off the top of my head,” said Anten.

Anten did remember the reason she should be selected to go to California. Besides visiting Pittsburgh once and living briefly in Delaware, Anten has never really travelled.

“I studied to become an electrician at Northern Maine Technical College last year and am now taking a break to raise my three children, Meghan, Ryan and Joshua,” she said. “Travelling to California will provide us an experience we could not afford at this time.”

Welch remembers saying during his audition something like: “After a hard day’s work at the museum moving antique furniture around, I like to come over to Pop’s and have a Bud Light.”

The company says it chose people who had “star appeal.”

Welch describes himself as a person of “moderate stature and not particularly good looking …”

Winners were told to be prepared to show off their talents. Welch, who has paintings in the Portland museum’s collection and paints by flinging paint onto a canvas on the floor, has an idea.

He wants to make a painting, sit down, admire it, open a beer and say, “Aah, this is what it’s all about.”

Anten had forgotten her casting experience until she received a letter on Sept. 22, and a call from Sherri Stevenson of Ross Advertising.

“I thought it was a joke when Sherri asked me if I remembered doing the commericial,” said Anten.

Each participant has been asked to bring seven changes of clothing for the taping, with emphasis on items typical of their area. As part of Caribou promotion effort, Anten plans to wear Caribou Chamber of Commerce shirts, local business promotion pins, a Maine Multiple Sclerosis “ugly bartender” Sport’s Inn shirt, and orange hunter caps.

“The brighter the colors, the better chance we have of being placed up front in the commercial,” said Anten.

The commercial will be filmed Tuesday and Wednesday at Universal Studios in Los Angeles.