  We describe a simple connection between the Froggatt-Nielsen, Stueckelberg
and Higgs mechanisms, all three of them combined in a consistent way. This is
illustrated in the context of a class of generalizations of the Standard Model
with a gauge structure extended by a certain number of anomalous U(1) factors.
These are built in the effective action in a way that gauge invariance and
unitarity are preserved.
  Among other features, a physical axion with properties different from those
of a Peccei-Quinn axion emerges.
