Maybe your folks don't watch as much broadcast television as you'd imagine. My parents (over 50) know what Uber is given - The amount of name drops the service

Maybe your folks don't watch as much broadcast television as you'd imagine. My parents (over 50) know what Uber is given - The amount of name drops the service gets on late night TV (Conan, SNL) - The news it generates (medallions, the france protests) - The viral facebook posts that go around when someone spends $300+ on an uber ride to go home. Despite the fact they live in a suburb. In any case, if we used your stringent definition of "household name", I doubt companies like Samsung, Sony or Twitter would fit the bill despite having massive consumer reach (and marketing spends).